[Sept. 2025] While walking through the old town of Lyon, France, a shop caught my eye.
At first, I didn’t know what it was, so we just walked past, thinking maybe they sold natural stones.
The next time we passed by, I thought it might be an eyeglass shop, and then almost walked past it again, but then turned back.
It didn’t seem like they were stones or glasses.
The items on display appeared to be photos of eyes.
My husband went inside and asked, and it turned out to be an interesting service where they take photos of the iris of the eye and turn them into decorations.
The store was called Iris Galerie, and it had been in business here for about five years.
We were told there were nearly 150 stores worldwide, but this was our first time seeing one.
We were intrigued, so we decided to give it a try.
First, we looked at our eyes with a magnifying glass and chose either the left or right.
I had never thought about it before, but the patterns on the right and left irises are slightly different.
I chose the left side.
I think my husband chose the left side as well.
We rested our chin on something similar to the equipment you see at an eye doctor, and the staff member took a photo of our irises.
There were many options for how to process the photo, but we chose one that connected both of our eyes.
The photo was 30cm square and framed, and it was not cheap at €147.
A better finish would have been more expensive, and in fact, the one we initially chose was €219, which was over our budget, so we gave up.
But since it’s a one-of-a-kind piece of art featuring our own eyes, it will be a precious keepsake.
They made this “artwork” for us while we were waiting, and we were able to take it home.
You can also have your iris photo processed into jewellery, such as a pendant.
My husband’s iris was so beautiful that I decided to have it made into a small pendant.
In Turkey and Greece, blue eyes are used to ward off evil.
I thought it would be even more effective because it’s a real eye, not a painted one.
It happened to be close to my birthday, so my husband gave it to me as a gift.
We couldn’t collect the pendant on the spot; it was delivered a few days later.
In Lyon’s Old Town, not only was the cathedral closed, but the traboules, another popular attraction, were also closed to the public, which was really disappointing, but because of this experience, I was very happy in the end.
This shop seemed to be quite popular, as there were two other couples waiting behind us.
