We are arriving in Paris on 12/6 - I was told by Lufthansa that I MUST now carry my passport on the street with me at all times in Paris. Normally we lock it up at the apartment - With the heightened security - do I need it on my at all times ?

Looking forward to see all the Christmas decorations/markets, I assume even with the problems - they have begun to open ?

Yes and yes.

Correct.

It's always been French law that you must carry your passport with you at all times. Just because people on travel boards advocate leaving their passports in the safe at their hotel does not make it acceptable, though many French police would normally cut you some slack and be fine with you carrying your passport copy.

But when you are detained by Paris police and don't have your actual passport on you, even if you have a copy, you are going to have to go back to the local préfecture with your real passport. Do you really want to hassle the French police with such a trivial thing, given all they are dealing with right now?

Just carry your passport with you at all times. It's not that big of a deal.

We lived in Paris for three yrs. in the 60s and always had to carry our passports with us, just as the French always have to carry their ID cards with them.

I'm a strong advocate of the »a passport belongs at the hotel« school, but in these circumstances one shouldn't create unnecessary problems for the police.

What should be left in your hotel is a COPY of your passport so in case of theft or loss you can provide all info to the embassy in order to get another.

If you don't already have a money belt, now would be a good time to get one. I frequently stay in places with no in-room safe and am accustomed to carrying passport, ATM and credit cards, etc. in a money belt. (No, I do not access it in public. One day's cash and maybe one credit card is more readily accessible.)

Americans should also be able to carry the US Passport Card, similar to a driver's license, when out walking around instead of carrying your passport. It's a wallet size card that can be scanned, providing all of the information contained in your passport.

It can be used when reentering the country from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda at land border crossings or sea ports-of-entry.

"I'm a strong advocate of the »a passport belongs at the hotel« school, "

You mean you advocate breaking your host country's laws merely because you find them irksome.

Explain to me the difference between your contempt for other people and the terrorists'

tomfromleiden probably also carries a Dutch ID card which is acceptable in France. He can even travel with that card, rather than his passport, in Europe.

We have to be able to provide proof of identity here in the Netherlands at all times too, as do tourists, not just at times of heightened security.

Explain to me the difference between your contempt for other people and the terrorists>>

moderate and balanced as ever, flanner. Speaking as someone who has a horror of losing my passport which I habitually leave in my hotel room safe, the obvious answer is that the only person you potentially inconvenience by not carrying your passport is yourself, but then you know that really. And not once have I been asked to produce it in some 40 years of travel.

However should I be in France or wherever carrying ones passport is a requirement in future, I can see the point of changing that habit and I will probably do so and leave a copy in my hotel room.

I also don't carry my passport around a "host country", although in today in Brussels or Paris, I would carry my passport, for obvious reasons. Just overall, I don't have a rigid catechism stuck in my head that causes me to scream in moral rage about rule bending. I am always willing to pay the price for any rule I deliberately break. Could care less what the flanneruks think of me, and if they can't figure out the difference between me and a terrorist, that's just one of their many evident psychological problems.

Do European drivers' licenses have photographs and home addresses as American licenses do?

I remember a huge brouhaha about "national identity cards" in the UK a few years ago when photo drivers' licenses were proposed, but I have no idea what happened.

US licenses are easy enough to counterfeit that they are no substitute for a passport -- at least at present.

Do you have a passport card? They are easy to carry and my husband always has his on him. I wish I had paid for one on my last renewal. Foreign US military bases have sent out emails for all personnel traveling to carry one now at all times. That and the order to stay out of France till the 25th, Paris till the 30th, Belgium, Milan and Rome.

Why would I pay extra for a passport card when I already have a passport? The card is not valid for travel to Europe, and I have no idea whether European authorities would accept it instead of a passport. It is cheaper and easier just to copy the picture page of the passport.

Do European drivers' licenses have photographs and home addresses as American licenses do?>>

UK ones do, not sure about the others.

but, and I know that this is hard for some americans to fathom, not everyone has a driving licence. My DS, for example is nearly 25 and can't drive. But they are not valid for travel anyway apart from some flights within the UK. [some carriers accept them as ID, others don't].

The Passport Card contains the same information as the Passport and can be used where enhanced drivers licensed are used, but only a few states offer the enhanced licenses. It can also be used as a form of identification when traveling within Europe, but can't be used when flying internationally, simply because you need to get a entry visa (stamp). When they start using digital stamps, the card will be perfect, al least for most people.

Thanks Robert for explaining that. My husband uses it with his military id to get on and off bases in other countries where I have to produce the passport. It is a great back up if you ever lose the actually passport in a foreign country and have to go to the embassy to have it replaced.

"It can also be used as a form of identification when traveling within Europe,"

Do you have a reference for that?