Audioguide children's portraits

Have you heard of the giants Pantagruel and   Gargantua? Well I published them here   in Lyon between 1533 and 1535 when I was a physician at the Hôtel-Dieu. That   was in the old hospital dating from the middle ages which no longer exists.   Unfortunately because I spent more time writing than tending my patients, the   rectors sacked me for abandoning my duties. My works were censored by   Sorbonne University, but that didn't stop me writing, nor from becoming one   of the greatest physicians in the kingdom. In fact king Francis 1 of France   was a great supporter of my humanist writings.    

I think you asked to see the architect of the vast facade? Well I’m the architect, Soufflot. I may look young, but I assure you I am not his assistant. It's true that I am only 27 and I just finished studying in Rome. This facade was to make me famous in all of Lyon, where I constructed buildings on the new banks of the Rhône, and later a theatre in 1753. I then went to Paris where I could serve the King as his Controller of Buildings. He even asked me to build the Panthéon in Paris. But I always remained true to my motto, "nature is my only master in art".

My white coif and black habit are the only objects I own. I gave all my worldly possessions to Hôtel-Dieu when I chose to serve the sick here. My name is sister Pila and I am a hospital sister but not a nun. I could have married or left the hospital whenever I liked, but I chose to live in the hospital for almost 80 years in the 18th century.

Apparently you want to know what a rector is? I am one so I will explain. My name is César Laure and I am one of 6 directors who managed the Hôtel Dieu from 1618 to 1620. Like the others, I come from a rich family and was elected for two years. The hospital has four wings – perhaps you saw in them in the Cours de Cloître - I'm the person who commissioned their design. But it is also thanks to me they were built because I gave a lot of money to the hospital when I left, like all the other rectors. Some men found they were left penniless by their donations, when the Hôtel Dieu had no money left.

Hello, I'm Dr Etienne Destot, one of the first radiologists in France. My first clinic was in this hospital, more than 120 years ago. X-rays had just been discovered and they enabled us to see the skeleton through the skin to find out if there were any broken bones. One of my inventions, the stereoscope, even enabled us to see the image in 3D. But it was nothing like your video games; the image was much less accurate and not as good.

You are probably asking yourself what we are doing here. After all we invented films, so had nothing to do with hospitals and the Hôtel Dieu. Or did we? Well actually we also invented aids for the sick. My brother, Louis, made an artificial hand that was used by 5,000 wounded soldiers. I, Auguste, invented a greased dressing called tulle gras. This is a dressing used on burns that can be removed without pulling off the burnt skin underneath.

If you had visited the hospital 100 years ago, you would have most certainly bumped into us. My name is Léon Bérard, I was one of the first physicians to use x-rays to treat cancer in 1917. In Hotel Dieu I founded the 2nd cancer treatment centre in France. I'm Marcel Mérieux. I was one of Louis Pasteur’s students and it was here that I invented the first vaccinations against Tetanus. The pharmaceutical firm Laboratoires Mérieux is named after me and its first home was in Lyon.