Long weekend in Lyon

I recently spent a lovely but very hot weekend in Lyon. The high temperatures meant lots of time was spent trying to find places with air conditioning, leading to more drawings of cold drinks than I’d normally make!

 

As well as the Musée des Beaux Arts in the centre of the city, I also visited the very impressive ‘Musée des Confluences’ which had a wide range of different permanent and temporary exhibitions.

My favourite was an exhibition of work by graphic artist Hugo Pratt, concentrating on stories about his character Corto Maltese.  The exhibition rooms were dark, with theatrical lighting used to highlight images and collected African items. The shadows cast were particularly effective. A soundtrack of jungle noises and drum beats added to the atmosphere. Individual comic frames were blown up, printed on sheer fabric and stretched over frames. In one circular area, projected images were overlaid on one another, giving the impression of animation, all enhanced with a simple colour scheme. Unfortunately, my French isn’t good enough to know whether the stories are good or not, but they certainly looked dramatic on this scale.

There were lots of photo opportunities in the city, particularly in old town area.

 Note to self: Next time you travel make sure that you book an air(conditioned)bnb.