Late nights and bike rides?

So last night as I was leaving a club and bidding adieu to my friend, despite being offered a place to crash until the metro came back to life, I assured her that I would just catch a cab and be home within 10 minutes. Ahh, yes, for those familiar with Parisian night life, you can see how silly I was!

I walked to the main square at Republique, sure that there would be millions of cabs. There were hundreds and hundreds of cabs. Unfortunately for me, and everyone else, the cabs were all full. I then saw that there was a queue of people waiting for taxis and decided to abide by the rules and get in line rather than try to poach a cab. I stood in the line for a good 5 minutes and quickly realized that I hadn’t moved nor had I even seen an empty cab pass.

At this point, I realized that there were night buses and made the rounds, searching for a stop where I might actually catch a night bus that went to Bastille (all the while, still hoping against hope, that I might see an empty cab). During my search, I also came across people trying to rent bikes, for what I can only assume, was their trip home. Now, in case you are not familiar with this, Paris has bike stands all over the city (and I am told that there are cities in the US who also subscribe to this phenomenon). There are something like 10-20 bikes at each station. You sign up online, come to a bike stand, rent a bike for some tiny fee, and ride it where-ever you want. You can even ride it from one stand to another and drop the bike off there. As I searched for a taxi or bus to take me home, I started wishing that I had one of these accounts because despite the high heels and dress I was wearing, I would have gladly hopped on a bike and ridden it home.

Lest you be concerned about my welfare, I did indeed find a bus and took it home. Upon getting off at Bastille, I was greeted by about 10 kids riding their rented bikes home from a late night out. I guess riding bikes doesn’t constitute a DUI here. I am however debating investing in a bike membership for my last month here, if not for the convenience of being able to explore the city by bike in addition to by foot, but also in order to be able to get home late at night with as little hassle as possible considering we have a bike stand a block from home.