I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike ...

Upon quitting babysitting tonight, I contemplated the Velib' station that faces the Kobrin's apartment. 'Why not?' I thought, 'Sooner or later you'll try it.'

I thus embarked upon my first harrowing Vélib' experience. Vélib' is the bicycle service in Paris and it's surrounding areas. You can get short term or long term subscriptions that allow you to rent out bikes from stations all around Paris. Seeing as there are a bunch near my house, I've always wanted to try, but I'm afraid of, oh, you know, BEING FLATTENED BY A BUS.

Still.

I popped in my snazzy bankcard, hopped a bike and started pedaling in what had to be roughly the correct direction. After some crazed weaving I was on the Iéna bridge over the Seine, staring at the Eiffel Tower lit up right smack in front of me. Picturesque comes to mind here.

After a panicked moment in the middle of 730 pm traffic on the Quai Branly, I ended up on the Avenue de Suffren, from which I cut across the Champ de Mars and wove erratically until I made it to Avenue La Motte-Piquet, and right next to the M° La Tour Maubourg, I ditched my bike at another Vélib' stand. I now see that I had actually navigated most of the tricky part by then, but that leaves me excitement for the next time I get ambitious.

I forgot how annoying one-way streets are when you aren't on foot.