When we first started reading about Lyon, the first reference that jumped up from the screen was Lumièrè brothers! Being a movie fanatic, who is addicted to weekly movie fix, immediately it was decided that we would visit Institut and Musee Lumièrè where it all began! After all was a pilgrimage spot…

After missing our connecting train from Paris and reaching Lyon late, our chances of spare time for sight-seeing became very grim. Moreover, Lyon was very cold, stormy, cloudy and it  was raining incessantly. It was something we were entirely unprepared for. So as we shivered through the first night, we simply thought we would have to miss all sight-seeing in Lyon. But the next day turned out to be little sunny and as we were returning from one of the school visits, I told my host about our wish to visit Lumiere Museum. And lo behold! my son, shouted, “Mom, it’s right here!”. My host slammed the brakes and we got down. She gave us hurried instructions about how to get back to our guest-house.

We walked back to the very ground where Lumièrè brothers had invented cinematograph, shot their first motion picture way back in 1890s and also screened it. The museum is housed in the home of  Lumièrè family. It is extremely well-maintained and displays take the viewers through the journey of development of motion picture cinematographs and cameras. They also continuously screen the short black and white first motion pictures made by the two brothers. It was indeed a privilege to watch black and white shorts in the very house where Lumiere brothers lived and invented film-making!

Here are few photographs of the visit…