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Scott Fitzgerald's visit to Lyon was a brief one, as remembered long after the events by Hemingway. Yet the Rhône-Alpes region left its mark on the Fitzgeralds' lives, and it will certainly as well on members of the Fitzgerald Society who attend the Eleventh International F. Scott Fitzgerald Conference to be held in Lyon, France, from 4 July to 9 July 2011. Lyon 3 University and its downtown campus will host the conference, with a full-day (academic sessions, a visit to the

“He told me that he and Zelda, his wife, had been compelled to abandon their small Renault motor car in Lyon because of bad weather and he asked me if I would go down to Lyon with him on the train to pick up the car and drive up with him to Paris. [...]
We agreed to meet the next day and we then arranged to leave for Lyon on the express train that left in the morning. This train left at a convenient hour and was very fast. It made only one stop, as I recall, at Dijon. We planned to get into Lyon, have the car checked and in good shape, have an excellent dinner and get an early-morning start back towards Paris.”
Ernest Hemingway. A Moveable Feast. New York: Scribners, 1964, pp.154-155.

museum, film showings) planned at the “Institut Lumière”, home of Auguste and Louis Lumière, who shot the first film there.

Together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Lyon forms the second-largest metropolitan area in

France after Paris. A UNESCO WorldHeritage Site since 1998, with its Roman, Renaissance and Silk districts, Lyon, “the capital of Gaul” and “silk capital of the world,” will appeal to those who delight in historical sights. For those with more earthly concerns, we should remember that Lyon is known as the French capital of gastronomy, due, in part, to the presence of many of France's most famous chefs but also to the fact that two of France's best-known wine-growing areas are located nearby: the Beaujolais and the Côtes du Rhône. Conference attendees will be offered the possibility of an afternoon visit to the Beaujolais vineyards and will also surely enjoy the “bouchons,” those very traditional, typical Lyon restaurants.

A full-day bus excursion will also take attendees to Annecy and Aix-Les-Bains, charming Alpine towns less than two hours away, by expressway, from Lyon. Although they journeyed there at a dark time

Announcing Lyon 2011!

The 11th International F. Scott Fitzgerald Conference to be Held in Lyon, July 4-9, 2011