March 13, 2021

Saturday

I got up early, cleaned the apartment, packed my bag, and was on my way to Lyon for a weekend with my friends. They came to the city Friday and explored while I had my meetings, but I still wanted to have some fun with the gang before going back to work on Monday.

I arrived in the city around 12:30 and navigated my way to the correct bus stop to get me downtown. I caught the bus and managed to get two stops down the line before the bus driver kicked everyone off. I had no idea why. Luckily, I was pretty close to Place Bellecour where we were all meeting up.

I quickly realized why the bus driver cut the route short. All the streets surrounding the Place Bellecour were blocked off by police. In the photo below, you can see that the police have a metal barricade. This can be used to push back protesters (there’s an apparatus on the other side that allows it to move) and to kettle protesters (trapping them in a specific area so they can be more easily controlled). There were huge lines of fire hoses hooked up on either side of this metal wall. Each street that led into the main square was closed off by police with vans, huge automatic weapons, and body armor.

We met up under the statue and realized that the protest was going to be starting there. Not wanting to get caught up with the French police, we skirted out of the square as fast as possible. All of us were ready for lunch so we went in search of food. We located some bubble tea, which was delicious. It made me miss Wednesday bubble tea nights with my friend Mike. After going down a little side street, we happened upon an Italian restaurant doing takeout pizzas. It sounded perfect! The guys inside were definitely right out of Italy, their accents were so strong it was difficult for me to tell which language they were speaking!

The next big ticket item on the to-do list was seeing the Parc Tête d’Or, one of the biggest parks in France. We hopped on the metro and came out nearby.

We entered the park as it started to rain. We decided that the zoo inside would be our destination.

Sadly, the main zoo doors were closed. It was still possible to see some of the animals that were housed on the outside rim. There were flamingos, zebras, and giraffes. While we watched the giraffes we were witness to what felt like an Animal Planet special. Both pairs of giraffes were starting their mating rituals. None of us realized until the male licked up the females pee. It was such a strange situation.

Leaving the park we headed out towards the Airbnb. We stopped and grabbed ingredients for margs on our way. There was this adorable little wine shop that sold hard liquors as well. The proprietor was 100% judging us for being Americans who wanted tequila instead of wine.

When we got home everyone slowed down for a bit to take a nap and just rest a bit. We did a lot of walking! I had a call with my friends from work to commemorate the anniversary of our office shutting down. It was so cool to catch up with everyone and to hear a bit about what they’re doing now. It made me a bit sad that everyone is out going our separate ways, but also just grateful that we could get together and have fun despite that.

After my call, I went back out into the living room. Dinner was delivered and drinks were ready! We got these customizable bowls that were great. I got salmon, rice, carrots, avocado, and cucumber in mine. It was like a giant sushi roll.

The night ended up being really fun. We enjoyed good music, got to talk about our schools and students, and chatted about all the dramatic news that happened throughout the week. It is so so refreshing to be able to speak real English with people!!!