Institute Lumiere

is where people go to learn how to play the character of Lumiere in Beauty & the Beast

Ok...
I really hope you didnt believe that.


It's actually the house where the Brothers Lumiere grew up.
So who cares right?
Well if you own, use, have ever used a camera, or have any pictures in your control....then you should!! If you own, rent, watch, or have ever watched a movie....you should!! These guys invented the snapshot camera, color photos, as well as the movie projector, the camera that records movies, and they were the first to ever make a film, show a movie to a public audience and the first to ever charge admission. Makes you feel pretty incompetent huh??

And even more bizzzaro is that their last name means Light.....?? Coincidence?? I think not!
Well they grew up in Lyon and invented and did all the above mentioned shiz in Lyon....so here you go....your very own tour!

This is what their house looks like.....its a mini replica....

Here is their parents room....their father owned one of four telephones in existence in Lyon around the mid 1800s. They other 3 belonged to the mayor, military, and the regional government building. So they were the only civilians to own a phone at the time.....crazy huh?

Brothers Lumiere invented the below glass plates for which a snapshot could be recorded on...

And the first color photo...

Basically the camera used to look like this, and you had to hire a pro chemist to mix some black goo that they spread on a plate, then pressed a button, and you had to sit there for at least 8 min while the camera took your photo. Cool huh? No.... So the Lumiere Brothers invented this glass plate with premade dry film on it that you placed in a camera,which they also invented, and bam in one second you get a photo, then you take the glass plate(s) to a developer and you could have as many photos printed out as you wanted.....so thanks to them, the camera was thus able to be used by the everyday man and mass printed.

Here are some more photos of their house ....

Here is a mini replica of where they shot the first film....its workers leaving their father's factory.

The first movie 'projecteur'

My class at the exact location where the first film was shot, pretending to be workers leaving the factory.

And yes, because I am me, I had my class reenact the first film for my readers!

They tore down the old factory to make a movie theatre for the Institute but they kept the roof from where the workers exited during the first shoot.

Me on the exact spot where the camera was placed to make the first film.....

Hope you enjoyed the tour, and if you are at all confused by my version of what the tour guide said, or you would like to know more....I encourage you to do some online research and you can even youtube the first film by typing "workers leaving the factory" Enjoy!

This is Veronique, the American formerly known as Ceci...signing out!

*My first and only dirty martini....yuck