Quai des Célestins, Riverfront street in Lyon, France

Quai des Célestins runs along the left bank of the Saône in Lyon's 2nd arrondissement, from the Palais de Justice footbridge and the end of quai Saint-Antoine to pont Bonaparte, where quai Tilsitt begins. It has only 11 house numbers. The riverside row has five- to six-storey buildings with flat facades, shallow pitched roofs and small dormers, painted cream, yellow, pale orange and white.

The Celestines arrived in Lyon in the 14th century and founded a convent that lasted until 1779; after a lawsuit its possessions went to the House of Savoy, which sold the whole to an entrepreneur who opened streets and built a theatre. The quay itself is attested in 1491, was renamed quai de la Révolution in 1848 and quai des Célestins the following year. Between numbers 8 and 11 stood the convent facade, its buildings reworked by Morand between 1789 and 1793 while the ground floors were kept.

Small plaques at the corner near Port du Temple show the height of floodwaters from 1840 and 1856, turning a simple wall into a reminder of the river's power. The name of the street still carries the memory of the Celestine monks, whose presence shaped this side of the city for centuries.

The quay runs along the left bank of the Saône between the Palais de Justice footbridge to the north and the Pont Bonaparte to the south, with only 11 house numbers along its length. It meets the rue de l'Ancienne Préfecture, rue d'Amboise, rue Gaspard André, rue Charles Dullin, rue de Savoie and rue du Port du Temple. The riverside embankment has a sloped stone walkway with steps and ramps below a retaining wall fitted with metal rings.

At number 5, balconies rest on carved stone dolphin figures, a surprising detail on a river street. Hidden between two other numbers, parts of the old cloister ground floors survive from the 1700s, mostly unnoticed by people passing by.