Travelling to Lyon from Canada

Air Transat has direct flights Montreal to Lyon during May - Oct. You can hop a flight to Montreal from Toronto or take the train to Dorval and get the free shuttle to the airport

Try kayak.com to find flights. Plugging in a search leaving May 31 and returning June 14, I found several Air Canada flights via Munich outbound and Frankfurt homebound, using Air Canada and then Lufthansa to and from Lyon, in the $700 range roundtrip. I'd call that a very good fare for flights four months out. Sunday fares are often cheaper than midweek. You might save money, at the expense of time and fatigue, by making two stops instead of one. Not surprisingly, I didn't find any nonstop -- Lyon isn't a transatlantic destination.

You can get more, probably better, advice from this website, look under "Flying" for topics.

Edit -- Just saw Steve's post about direct Montreal-Lyon flights. If this means nonstop, I stand corrected. Worth a drive to Montreal in that case.

Thank you for your advice!
Sandra

If you go directly to the Air Canada site, you can find mid-May fares to Lyon for just under $900, although you may have to play around with the combination of dates. AC has a grid that will show you an assortment of schedules. That price is Canadian, remember, which makes a big difference right now (alas). Websites that show fares in US$ shortchange what it will cost Canadians by at least 25 per cent. Be alert, too, about Kayak and many other agency sites finding low fares but with long layovers in unexpected places.
AC and Lufthansa sell each other's tickets for the full route. That's an advantage if there is a delay of some sort since the two airlines will work it out for you. Combo tickets on unrelated airlines may not facilitate such co-operation.

Don't know about economical, but Air Canada Toronto to Frankfurt and then Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Lyon works well. You can book the entire itinerary online at the air Canada website. Just use Toronto and Lyon - the system will show you the options and prices and you can see how long the stopover in Frankfurt is. I believe the system allows you to book a 1 hour layover in Frankfurt, but if you've never flown into Frankfurt before, I would definitely allow 2 hours to transfer.