Personal Safety

I spent a lot of time in Paris in the late 1970s/early 1980s but, until this April, I had not been back for about 20 years. Reading the guidebooks to see what had changed in that time, I got the distict impression that, in one respect, Paris had changed for the worse.

It seemed that I was almost certain to be mugged, robbed or attacked, possibly all three. Especially if I spent any time at all near the Gare du Nord, where I had stayed when I first arrived in Paris in 1977 and where we were to stay this year, or around Rue Reaumur, where I lived for a while as a student.

All this in a city where I had wandered about with impunity at all hours of the day and night 20-plus years ago and never encountered anything worse than young guys wanting to chat me up!

Well...I was very pleased to discover that nothing had changed at all!

Of course, you need to be aware of what%26#39;s around you (%26#39;street-smart%26#39;), I wouldn%26#39;t walk around with an unzipped bag displaying everything inside, or a wallet in my back pocket. And yes, you can take all sensible precautions and just be unlucky. It does happen. But all these things are equally true in any English town or city.

So, yes, be careful, be sensible, be street-smart. But don%26#39;t be so afraid that your holiday is spoilt. I still feel much safer in Paris after dark than in Southampton, Portsmouth, Brighton, Croydon....

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or New York, Chicago, Miami, LA, SF, San Jose, Phoenix, Denver, etc........

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In my four trips to Paris since 2000 I have not encountered

any problems. You need to be sensible, don%26#39;t travel in places

that do not have a good reputation and use common sense;

be aware of your surrondinngs.

Don%26#39;t make yourself a target with an open purse, a loose

camera swinging around your neck or a wallet in your

back pocket.

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%26#39;77 and 05 ? if you loved it then,then it is certain that you will love it even more now!Paris naysayers churn all kinds of permutation of how unsafe she is...