Let's Not Meet Again

Taxi Driver

This happened a few months ago to me and my girlfriend (referring to her as J in this post) when we went on our first holiday together. We had decided to go to Paris, but could only afford three days, so we had to cram in an awful lot of early travelling into a very short space of time (we live in the North of England and were going to France by Eurostar. Cut price coach travelling from one end of the country to the other is not recommended.)

Anyway, we arrived at Gare du Nord at about 4:30pm local time. Bare in mind we had been travelling since three in the morning and had barely been able to get any sleep on the journey so we were completely shattered and just wanted to get to the hotel so we could rest.

As we headed for the exit, we noticed several crowds of men gathered around the doors, talking to people going past. However, there was one guy standing away from the crowd, looking around at the people going past. He spotted us and came over- he was about the same height as me (I'm around 6 foot), wore a short black overcoat, a black trilby hat and a shirt and tie. He was mixed race, slim, with stubble and short dreads peaking out from under his hat. I'll be honest and say he was fairly handsome- there was nothing especially threatening about him that came to mind.

Anyway, he came over and asked "Do you want a taxi?" We went along with it and told him we did, and he told us to come with him, all smiley and friendly. He lead us away from the crowds, through a side door and down a stairwell. That struck me as odd but it soon became apparent it was a car park (there was some work being done outside the station so it made sense.) The guy then started to strike me as a bit odd- he was almost disarmingly cheerful and friendly, and he kept trying to take J's bag for her, even though she repeatedly insisted she was alright.

After a minute or so of traipsing around the car park, we got to his vehicle- this was when I started to get the feeling something was up. It was a nice car but there was no taxi sign- in fact there was nothing at all about the car or the guy that screamed 'taxi' to me. He took our bags and put them in the boot. Then what he said next really weirded me out and I don't know why we didn't just leave then.

"You, get in the back, and you get in the front."

The person he wanted in the front was me. That just came across as completely weird but being idiot tourists who hadn't slept since about 5:00pm the previous night, we carried on as normal and got in the car. Once inside, he told us that it would cost us €45 to get to our hotel. We were staggered by the cost but knew that Paris was expensive and I think we were frankly kidding ourselves by pretending this was just standard procedure on holiday.

Anyway, he sped out of the car park with the radio on full blast. Every time he spoke, he sounded nervous and jittery, high pitched and peppering his sentences with high pitched laughter, either like he was in the last place in the world he wanted to be or very excited about something.

We were both getting a little bit weirded out at this stage but he was going too fast. It was then that a very happy accident happened- somebody's car had broken down right in the centre of the ticket gate and we were trapped behind them. Our driver leaned out of the window and started shouting and swearing at him in French- his tone of voice was just completely off for normal road rage. He sounded borderline terrified.

As car park attendants rushed around the other car to sort out their problem, I took the chance to ask the driver if he had any kind of taxi driver's ID. His face momentarily fell but he started smiling again pretty soon. He said he didn't understand, but I didn't believe that for a second because his English had been impeccable up until then. I asked what taxi company he worked for and he replied with Uber. I kept pressing him for ID but he kept saying he didn't understand, or that he didn't need one or some shit like that. It didn't matter- I looked back at J and we both just nodded and simultaneously got out of the car. He shouted after us but we were gone.

I went to the boot to get out luggage out and he sped forward- J was still halfway out of the car door and I thought for one horrible moment he was trying to drive off with our things or, at worst, with J still in the car. But the other car stalled again and he got about half an inch before the attendants rushed around him and started to shout out at him.

Some of the attendants came up to us and were very supportive and kind- they told us where to find the real taxi rank, and to avoid any one like that in future. They told us they have had a lot of problems with people like this before, and that you could never be too careful. They told us that the best case scenario is you get ripped off for about €40, €45 euros when you can get a real taxi for €10 or less. They didn't tell us what the worst case scenario was and I'm quite glad about that.

Anyway, we found a real taxi driver and he took us to our hotel safely. We got in and went straight to sleep, although we were both a little shaken by what happened. In retrospect, I think he was probably just aiming to rip us off, but there is still a little part of me that wonders if his demeanour was indicating something more sinister. Call it holiday maker's naivety or whatever. Either way, we both felt so stupid for a long time afterwards for going along with this guy, and we were both so grateful that car encountered problems and that the car park attendants were doing their jobs so well.

Do, creepy Parisian taxi driver- let's not meet.