Tiago follows a stranger in Lyon...

A friend of mine (N) and I, started playing a game here in Lyon that is called "cap ou pa cap?" which translated into English means "are you game or not?" -  basically a dare game.

It was my time to complete my cap/dare, which was:
"Follow a complete stranger for a day, and do everything that that person does and go where they go - and then write a blog about it" - challenge accepted!!

Seems very odd (being a stalker basically!) following someone for a day, but it doesn't seem that hard to do right?
I just had to pick someone random, and follow that person, without them noticing me, or it would end pretty quickly and in jail...!

I felt that if the person was having an interesting and busy day, or did random things, it could really be an interesting experience.
It could also go the other way, I could pick someone that would go straight home and not leave until the next day.

I went to the Parc de la Tete D'Or, and after some people went by, a young (25-30 maybe) guy caught my eye and he seemed as good as anyone to be followed, so I decided to follow him.

Barely did I know that this guy really, really but really....loved to walk...and fast!!

Start: Parc de la Tete D'or - Porte des Enfants du Rhone

By the River Rhone on the way out...I was fresh here! He is far ahead, I always kept a long distance between us. 

1st stop: Public toilet

Then he walked...and walked...by the river Rhone, and into town. Just him and his backpack...and me!

He stopped to look at these plants

2nd stop: Cash machine

3rd stop: Terre des Livres - Bookstore (3 min)

4th stop: Librarie Rive Gauche - Bookstore (10 min)

Librarie Rive Gauche

After the book store he came back to where I was standing so I had to quickly improvise and get into a little Carrefour to hide..here he is.

- At 14h45 I changed sweatshirt as I believed he had seen me a couple of times, so I went from a grey sweatshirt to a blue one, and I also took my glasses off, felt so Clark Kent!

5th stop: He entered a store called Biocoop - a store that sells biologic and ecologic food products. He bought some fruit here and ate a very big fruit, not sure what it was.

- He saw me across the street at some point after this store, so I thought that was it, I couldn't continue following him. I decided to continue by increasing even more the distance to him, and became even more careful.

6th stop: After another long walk, we ended up in the Confluence Commercial Centre, where he went to the supermarket Carrefour and stayed there for 15 minutes. I did not go inside as I was worried about him noticing me once again.

After that he never stopped again. He just walked and walked, slight pauses just to decide which street to take but just relentless walking.





Finish: His home I assume.
Ironically it actually ended up right next to where I live!

The end. His home?

The first picture is from Strava and shows the distance and time done.
I walked 13.3 miles (21.4 Km) with him - WHAT?? Are you serious?
This guy walked even more than me, as I cycled to the Parc!!
The second one shows in detail the route we took.

I shared 4h of my life with this complete stranger, we walked around Lyon to the same places and he took all the decisions. It was very odd at times, but I went to places and streets I didn't know, and found it interesting and refreshing that someone else was deciding my next moves, without them knowing.

It wasn't always easy. I nearly lost him maybe 5 times, as I wanted to keep a big distance between me and him. Somehow I managed to keep up with him with some running, patience and my CIA skills.

I also managed to take some pictures along the way as it was a beautiful day.

River Rhone

Lyon "Eye" at Place Bellecour

A mural of the Major Claude Martin, a Lyonnais

Rhone

Conclusion: It was an odd experience and quite hard to do, as the guy really liked to walk and seemed to walk forever, but interesting nonetheless.

Who is he?
I believe he is a student as he lives next to the university, and maybe interested in ecology. He stopped one time to look closely at some plants (1st pic) and he seemed to look at some threes for a little while. He also entered a couple of biological stores.
He also entered a couple of book stores, so maybe a book lover. That's all I could take from what I saw.