Was ridiculous and cool.

Navigating the airport a breeze… Customs was a fast “passporte svp and merci”. Getting luggage no problem. Getting a single ticket to central Lyon, no problem.

Then the bus queue. I was the 3rd person there, but there was a 20 minute wait, and lots more ppl showed up in the mean time. And when that bus came it was a bloodbath. People yelling and pushing and shoving. So I let my inner-Boston out a little bit and got my ass a seat on that bus. I am told that this was a typical French experience

I made my way to the very back of the bus and sat down. There was a long announcement in French that was clearly about a number of different stops… something Roy and I had not discussed. I just figured one stop or one main one. Then came the english… I listened hard and my seatmate noticed.

He turned out to be Yann (like Ian)… a delightful, sweet french guy of 25-30ish who immediately took me under his wing. We chatted about his lovely girlfriend and tiny cars in europe and his very successful trip to Warsaw where he managed to gain a non-trivial increase in the bathroom hardware he was selling. And he gave me restaurant reco’s… something to the effect of not being able to find a single bad restaurant in all of Lyon. You gotta love that civic booster action.

Even better, he graciously offered me a ride to the Opera de Lyon where I needed to pick up keys and directions back to the apartment. After loading my sttuff in the back of his car… he locked his keys inside. With his phone, wallet, and everything.

My baggage including my emergency wad of travellers cheques and laptop were in this dude’s car. Was I being played?

Nope. He was so apologetic about the whole thing it was almost funny.

I discovered my phone didn’t work, so we had to borrow the phone from guy at the tgv car parc station operator office. (HOT HOT HOT OMG). He called his girlfriend and she drove down with an extra set of keys. While we waited he took me to the TGV platform so I could see one. (Dear Caltrain: GROW THE FUCK UP. Love, all the commuters of CA) I also drank a 4euro orangina. Yummy.

So she came, we got in the car, and graciously took me not only to the opera to get the keys and up the hill to the apartment.

He is moving this weekend, so unable to accept my offer of lunch, but perhaps if he makes it to SF or when I return.

Thanks Yann