Most of the time, I walk around the city. However, I have taken the metro and the bus a couple of times in the past week, and it felt a lot like traveling through New York. When I first arrived, I bought 10 student passes for public transportation. They came in a small pack of individual papers, and I was very nervous about losing them! When you get on the metro, you insert your ticket into the slot, similar to swiping your metro card. Don't forget to grab it and hold onto it for the rest of your trip, though! The machine prints the time you entered the metro on your ticket and it serves as proof of receipt. If you do not have a stamped ticket on the metro, you could get a large fine by a contrôleur des transports (transport ticketer), someone whose job it is to make sure everything is working well on the metro. I was a bit nervous to go on the metro at first because my host family warned me about possible pickpockets, but I kept my bag in front of me and everything was completely fine! The metro was super fast, and I felt very connected to the Lyonnais people around me coming home from work by overhearing snippets of French conversation and following the crowd as we moved through the city.
In a way, I believe the metro is actually the opposite of French culture and environment. The metro is speedy, busy and sometimes a bit stressful. French life, on the other hand, is about relaxation and enjoyment. French workers get six weeks of paid vacation each year. Dinner typically lasts more than an hour and has multiple courses.
