Any really bad experiences of Paris?
 

Has anyone had any real bad experiences in Paris?Violence, being robbed,pickpocketed etc.?Or was it all plain sailing?

so you're looking for random "Paris was bad because...." stories??

Yes, I had to fly home.

I am curious about other people's experiences.Been to France,but this is first time for Paris,for me....

I was followed, harrassed and basically backed to a doorway by a thug who kept trying to trip me. I kept walking but my partner(who was walking ahead of me) finally turned around and noticed this thug was trying to get me into a doorway. He yelled at him when he noticed two more thugs who were coming from other doorways to join in. His yelling startled them. Thug#1 reached in my pocket, grabbed some change and was out of there. So much for my first day in Paris. Needless to say, the rest of the trip went well. Paris was nice, but I felt I had to always be on alert.

We saw pickpockets in line at the Louvre and watched a German lady smack one upside the head, as we say here in KY. A homeless man who cursed fluently in English joined us for dinner at a pizza hut until the manager threw him out. That's about it, other than that I felt much safer there than I did in Amsterdam or some American cities. There was some panhandling on the subways, but not really agressively - they usually put on a show of some sort (singing, puppet, etc), then passed a hat.

We have been to Paris at least 5 times over the last 10 years and as recently as this past December. We have been there with our three children 3 of those times and have never had any problems whatsoever. You always hear the pickpocket stories and some of that does happen, but if you just use some common sense about not showing all your money or looping your fanny pack through your beltloop, you shouldn't have any problem. We walked through all of the areas of Paris and with the exception of the Moulin Rouge area late at night,we felt very safe at all times. I heard a good line from a Frenchman I met in Paris. He said, "the difference between major American cities and Paris is that in Paris you may be robbed, but they won't hurt you. In America, they will rob you, and hurt you."

A dirty drunk guy grabbed me and kissed me at about 4 am on New Year's morning, but I guess I deserved it for being out so late. When I asked my husband why he didn't stop him,he said, "You didn't seem to mind when all those other [young cute] guys kissed you!"

was walking down the street and a man coming the other way started to slap/poke at me with very quick actions up at the face then down toward the stomach and all around. i soon realised he was trying to throw me off so he could go in at the pockets. i successfully blocked each attempted slap/poke included the pocket attempt. i slipped around him to continue walking the other way. on my way by, he trapped me a good one on the neck...a real punch this time. hurt like hell but i kept on walking. no big deal in the end but this was the only time in my life i was assaulted on the street and i have lived in major cities all around the world.

my only trip to Paris I have no bad experiences.

My week-long visit went great last September, until we went to the airport to go home, and discovered my husband forgot his Green Card to get back into the States.

I had to leave him behind, and he had to go to the Consulate the next day to get his flying papers...but I guess in the end it wasn't all bad. My husband got a couple of extra days in Paris he wasn't counting on, and in the end, the French <i>did</i> return him to me.

:)

Jules

LOL, mvor, that was exactly My Bad Experience !! :D

THe worst was when Mrs. AJ discovered that water cost more than wine. She had ordered water.

Lady Wife and I stopped off at the public toilet in the Tuileries about noon.

Attendant let her in.

Told me to go pee behind a tree.

She then went off to lunch.

((I))

Have been to Paris at least 12 times and the worst thing I have seen is a woman who sprained her ankle when she tried to run down the Metro steps in stilletos.

I'm sure there is minor crime - as there is anywhere. But if you take normal precautionns and don;t walk down dark alleys at 3am you should be fine.

I was harassed by street walkers/prostitutes in a seedy area of Paris one time.

I was walking along with two male friends, one on each arm, which seemed to upset the girls.

We had gotten lost trying to find a restaurant and made a few wrong turns and ended up on their turf.

I have no idea what they were saying but I don't think it was &quot;welcome to Paris&quot;. All the men did was speed up the pace until we got a few streets away. Well, we were outnumbered....by alot....and they looked like tough cookies!!

SeaUrchin, imagine the stories you could tell friends upon your return home..Being roughed up by hookers LOL And I bet one was this 6' tall woman with a really deep voice? :D

Well, Scarlett, when you see three men walking arm in arm....

Hmmmm, I am not a man.......

Not me thank goodness, but last Oct. my friends that were with me had backpacks and were pickpocketed as we entered the Concorde Metro station.Lost a wallet &amp; 300euros.
I never flash my wallet in public so they (the pickpocks) can't see where I am carrying it.

LOL, ok, I know SeaUrchin is a lady.
I was joking about one of the &quot;tough cookies&quot; really being a man dressed like a woman...
I am going to quit trying to be a comedian :D

Ira,

Your wife was admitted to the public toilet. You were sent to pee behind a tree. Your wife went to lunch.

You couldn't go to lunch with her because you were arrested for public urination. Right?

Hi SeaUrchin,

Same thing happened to me. My boyfriend, my friend and her boyfriend and I were probably in the same seedy area and a very tall and robust prostitute shouted at my female friend to leave at once. She was quite aggressive about it and even scared the guys.

Needless to say, we never went to that area again. The guys didn't either.

ANY Paris story is a good one. THe worst thing that happened to us was a heart thumping taxi ride to the airport when it was time to leave. We really thought we were done for. When we lurched to a stop, the cab driver smiled and said in a heavy French accent, &quot;Jus like James Bond, oui?&quot; We still laugh about it 2 years later.

Be sensible no matter where you are is always good advice.

But one should be aware that while France was once significantly safer in terms of crime than the United States, that has changed dramatically over the last couple of decades.

By 2001 the crimes per 100,000 in the USA had fallen to 4161 while the French rate had risen to 6941. (as per Interpol)

The trend seems to be more crime in Europe and less crime in the USA.

One should note that this is ALL crimes which may be a bit deceptive. The Homicide rate in France was lower at 3.91 (as of 2000) than in the United States (5.5).

If it wasn't 6AM I'd look for more recent numbers but I haven't been to sleep yet.

Was pickpocketed (pursepocketed) in a metro once when surrounded by a group of young thugs. Joke on them they got my small pouch containing asprin, travel hand lotion, ect. My wallet was in the back zipper panel of my purse.

Was out by myself last spring and a man kept following me around asking me out and would not take no for an answer. Finally a salesman at a store started walking me back to my apartment until the other one left, so we thought. Came out of my apartment a couple hours later and the man was standing on the corner and began harrassing me again to go out with him. I had to go into another store and the lady in that store called a beat cop who politely escorted me back to my apartment.

And the last one I kind of instigated. Guy kept trying to sell me one of those handmade pieces of thread to tie around my wrist. I kept waling and telling him no and he kept aggressively trying to sell it. Got on my nerves so I said fine I will by a red white and blue one. Set off a rampage of anti-American screaming in my face. Before I dodged into a store, I gave him a parting shot about the colors being French and I think the word idiot slipped out of my mouth. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, they make them in their native immigrant colors.

oops not awake yet
sorry for the typos
should say walking and buy not by

Hi Dave,

Hmmmm. Staccato writing can lead to ambiguities, can't it? :)

The attendant went to lunch.

I wasn't arrested because it was lunch time and all of the urinals in Paris were closed.

((I))

Recall the film &quot;The French Connection&quot; when the cop and the bad guy were playing games getting on and off a subway?

Only, in our case, it happened in Paris, not in New York.

My wife can be a little unobserving. She didn't see the guy with the raincoat draped over his arm (it was a sunny day on the street). I told her to keep an eye on him and get ready to jump from the subway car in which we were riding and standing. She couldn't understand why. I told her to just do as I ordered, as I grabbed her arm and prepared to leave the car as it pulled into a station. The raincoat guy did the same. We jumped back on. He gave us a dirty look as the train pulled away. I explained all this to my wife later -- she is much more street-smart now.

Just keep your eyes open, use your street smarts, and you will do just fine.

Good advice to keep your eyes open and use street smarts but I would add take off your rose colored glasses. Yes, Paris is one of the most beautiful cities of the world but there are parts that are not so safe.

I have driven though some parts where I certainly would not want to get out of the car. Same as with any big city. Statistics are only so comforting until something happens.

Try not to go to those areas, imho.

If you are looking for &quot;bad travel experiences&quot; you will find them in every city in the world. If you sat and worried about what might happen to you, you would never go anywhere! The best thing is to use common sense and keep your wits about you when you're not in a familiar place.

Here in Portland, OR, I get hit up for change by homeless people, some of them quite aggressive, all the time, so Paris as I remember it seems tame by comparison. I can't wait to go back!

Andrew

Though I cannot cite any specific experience, I was generally let down with Paris. I was staying in a great area (le marais) with my cousin who lives there, and I got to see quite a few great things, but in general it was not a place I would return to or go out of my way to see again. It was like going to a &quot;really fabulous restaurant&quot; where they decantur the wine wrong and serve you food that is just off enough that you have no desire to return.

Claire

Paris isn't particularly dangerous; violent crimes are rare. Most crimes are pickpocketing and the like. In recent years stealing cellphones has become quite popular, although I'm not sure why, since everyone in France already has a cellphone.

The overall crime numbers might be higher in France than in the U.S. (I haven't looked recently), but here again, this counts everything, not just violent crimes.

It reminds me of the bit of the person who kept insisting that Paris was terribly dangerous, with people being raped and robbed daily. I finally asked what he did and found out he worked at the local embassy, dealing with tourists from his country who had been victims of crime. Not exactly a random cross-section of the population.