5 juin 2025 - Blog de Joshua Solomita

Today was our last full day in Lyon, and one could definitely feel the emotional weight of that as an undercurrent to our day. Thankfully, we had a packed itinerary, challenging us all to remain present and continuously curious to discover the city that has been our home for the last two weeks.

8:00 We began our day at Lycée Saint-Marc, not as a group, but by following our host students to their first two classes — one hour each. While I have no pictures to offer for this, there are a couple cultural differences that we got to experience that are worth noting. First, instead of students changing classrooms between periods, as we do in the United States, French students remain in their seats; teachers move between classrooms, meaning that students remain with the same group for each subject. Secondly, when a teacher enters the classroom, every student stands — this is a show of respect that is customary at Lycée Saint-Marc.

10:00 After two hours of classes, we met as a group and departed for les Halles de Lyon — a large, inside, marketplace for specialty french foods. Upon arriving, we were greeted by Celine, who led our guided tasting of Maison Gast’s meat, cheese, and praline pastries. As she explained each item and the history behind them, we had the opportunity to sample them from a platter (which didn’t last long!). After this, we were given twenty five minutes to explore the halls on our own.

12:00 After a quick metro ride, we returned to the high school and were “set free” (yes, I use that term lightly) to go get lunch. Having experienced the school cafeteria’s offerings previously, the whole group made a mad dash through the front door. I, along with four other BC High guys, ended up eating at a small sushi place close to Bellecour.

13:15 Shortly after one, we reassembled and left for the Musée des Confluences — a natural history museum. To get there, we took an appropriately decorated tram.

14:00 Upon arriving at the museum, we went through security and were introduced to our wonderful tour guide. Our first order of business was learning about the architecture of the museum. Designed by architect Wolf Dieter Prix (not French, but Australian), the museum’s physical presence is supposed to blur the line between nature (outside) and humankind (inside). I’ll let you be the judge of that.

After learning about the architecture, we moved on to explore the exhibits themselves. Frankly, the artifacts on display were exactly what you would expect to find in a natural history museum; where this museum differentiates itself, however, is the way in which these artifacts have been curated. To sum it up briefly, this museum blurs the boundary (or reveals the already, naturally, blurred boundary) between humankind and the natural world by guiding its visitors through their intertwined origins.

There were four permanent exhibits:

1. Origines (Origins) ~ here, natural explanations of the origin of life and the universe itself were interwoven with humankind’s various creation stories. This wasn’t a comparison of right and wrong, rather, it was presented as an opportunity to explore their common role in shaping our shared human identity.

2. Espèces (Species) ~ here, we saw the intertwined evolution of the various early human species and the rest of life on earth. Additionally, the existing relationship between humans and other animals — mutual coexistence — was explained through artifact.

3. Sociétés (Societies) ~ here, we got a broad perspective of human society through a varied collection of objects and artifacts.

4. Éternité (Eternity, Life after Death) ~ here, we saw the intersection between physical death and humankind’s spiritual interpretations of what comes after by examining multiple burial rituals. The presence of actual dead bodies made this… vivid.

A few relevant photos (no dead bodies):

Next, we made a brief stop at Confluence the mall. Here we were given a short time to explore and go shopping on our own. 

17:00 Upon returning to Lycée Saint-Marc, we spent a little while in the Atrium signing cards for the various people who made our wonderful trip possible before heading down for an end-of-trip ceremony in the dining hall. We heard a number of reflections, got pamphlets of group photos taken throughout the two weeks, and ate a variety of snacks. 

18:00 From here, we left with our host students to have a final dinner with our host families and to get prepared for our trip home the following day. It is hard to believe that two weeks went by so fast.