Ending the First Week at Lycée Saint Marc - Lyon by Tyler Boie (Friday, 31 May)

We started today with two classes with our exchange students.  For me, Olivier, and Declan, we went to a history class and a math class.  During the history class, we talked about the American Revolution and the United States Constitution.  We talked about the basic structure of the United States government, but nothing too new for us Americans.  

After the two classes, we headed out for Le Parc de la Tête d'Or.  We broke off into groups of four and walked around for about an hour and a half.  Myself, Wyatt, Jonathan, and Olivier, we went straight to the zoo.  Eventually we went to a nearby food court in the park and got some fries to split.  At 12:30, we headed back to the front gate.

We had a nice picnic with the food we had brought from the school.  It consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich, an apple, some apple (definitely banana) cakes containing four grams of protein each, apple sauce, chips, and some water.  Conor, being an absolute legend, brought some cookies, chips, and cherries.  A beautiful day, a wonderful lunch, and a fun game ahead of us.

We were given simple instructions: the goal was to locate ten locations in the park and take pictures of them.  A light lit up in Wyatt's eyes.  Despite believing this to be a simple game, Jonathan and I could tell that Wyatt would not let us lose.  He would let one of us die before he lost.  That's when we were given the queue.  Go.

And we ran. 

We ran straight towards the zoo.  Jonathan and Wyatt had already identified one of the images, that being an abandoned bear cage across from the flamingo exhibit.  And so we bolted towards the cage.  In a heartbeat, Jonathan took that picture and we got out of there.  We took a minute to identify the other locations.  Many of them were on the lake, so we ran along it.  At a nearby restaurant, Wyatt ran over and stared along its perimeter.  He had located our next location, a series of boats lined up alongside each other.  We ran over and stumbled upon another location, the beautiful east entrance.  Jonathan took a photo of the gate while Wyatt took a shot of the boats.  Within 15 minutes, we found three locations.

We checked the locations one more time.  Of the seven remaining, two of them were a question.  The first, a random piano.  There were very few clues as to where it would be.  Our best strategy was to simply let it come to us.  The second, a bridge that seemed to be in a garden.  Wyatt said that it was most likely in the botanical garden, so we should put it on hold.  Our next goal was to reach the monument located in the center of the lake.  To get there, we needed to cross through a tunnel. 

Running along the lake towards the connection point, we found another statue on the path.  That made number four.  Shortly after, we found a gazebo by the water.  We almost passed it by when I took a moment to listen: the sound of a piano.  I called over the Wyatt: "Écoutez, s'il vous plaît (listen, please)."  He  was still running, yet came to a complete stop within a heartbeat.  We compared the piano before us to our reference, confirming that it was the one we were looking for.  That made for number six of ten.  From there, we booked it to the tunnel.

While Wyatt grabbed a photo of the statue, Jonathan and I searched the perimeter from the center of the lake.  From what we could tell, there weren't any more locations to visit along the lake.  Wyatt returned to us, eager to continue.  With regret, however, I pulled him over.  "We must not act rashly," I said.  Jonathan took out his phone and displayed the reference photos.  We still had three left.  

I could see that it was bothering Wyatt, having to suffer such a loss of time, but we all understood it was necessary.  We identified the remaining areas.  The flowers and another statue seemed difficult to find, but the only natural place they would be is the botanical garden.  We made the assumption that the bridge we were looking for was there as well.  With seven of ten under our dress code approved belts, we ran.

In the blazing heat, we ran across fresh fields of grass and rugged dirt roads.  Once in a while, we'd need to take a break to breathe.  After racing to the garden, we found the statue instantly.  Wyatt went to take a photo of the statue while Jonathan and I searched profusely for the flowers.  We eventually found them and hollered for Wyatt, who took our ninth picture.  Within 45 minutes, we found nine out of ten of the locations.  And that was when we came to a frightening realization: we had not found the bridge.

We ran along the dirt roads, searching for any sign.  The pathways in the reference photo had a unique pattern, one that we could not find anywhere.  Wyatt, with a heavy heart, turned towards us: "I would hate to be the harbinger of bad news," he said.  "But this very bridge that we seek... it is most definitely on the other side of this park."  We could not believe the absolute blunder that we had made.  We reviewed maps and several pathways, but there was no way over there that would not take us an absurd amount of time.  And so we ran.

And we continued to run.

The sun was beaming down on us at this point.  Every second we ran, we knew we were losing time.  Every minute, someone found another location.  A new thought began to cross our minds: we might just lose.  

We found the Rosserie.  The bridge had to have been here.  We walked in, and I immediately noticed the pathways.  They were identical.  All that mattered now was that we found the bridge.  Wyatt split off to search the left as we searched the right.  Jonathan and I ran through, eagerly searching.  We had lost at least 20 minutes at this point.  The running, the breaks, the searching.  We could not find it.  Our only option was to search the left side alongside Wyatt.  And I felt something hit my face.  Water.  It had begun to rain.  It was so refreshing, finally something to fight the heat of the sun.  We headed over to Wyatt.  And that's when we saw it.  It was there.  The bridge, it was really there.  Wyatt was walking towards us, phone in hand, celebrating.  We had done it.  All that was left was to send the photos.  And we did just that.  We were the first ones to send in our photos.  We began the difficult journey back to the starting point, celebrating along the way.  The rain was getting stronger, more aggressive.  It poured down on us.  About 20 minutes later, after marching through the rain, we returned to the meeting place.  

But it turns out that Charlie and Christopher had taken all of the photos and showed them to Madame McGrath before we had sent ours in.  So they won the competition.  But maybe that wasn't the point.  Maybe the real victory, the real "treasure" in our scavenger hunt, was the friends we made along the way.







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