What is the current situation in Paris, is it safe to travel there now ?
We are planning to be there around first week december.
Its a pity the city of love shed a tear that day.

Thanks

France continues to be on high alert - as do most of the countries in europe and the US.

Frankly, there is no absolute guarantee of safety anywhere. One needs to judge potential risks and make one's decisions.

As a New Yorker I am used to living with a very high level of security - which I much prefer to hiding one's head in the ground.

Only you can decide what is right for you. We choose not to let terrorists affect our plans - although we are obviously no headed to an active war zones.

Is it safe where you are? Are you sure?

The NYTimes is full of pictures and stories about Parisians taking to the cafes, museums, parks, vowing to take back their life and not let terrorists win.
We went to France a month after 9/11. France and particularly Paris has always had a hard response to threats. I am particularly amazed at the pace shown to identify these cowards.
You may be as safe in Paris than your city but as said above, make up your own mind.

News photos are always subjective. Depending on which neighborhood you find yourself in, Paris is either very quiet or almost normal - but not quite.

There don't seem to be many tourists in the Marais this week, though schoolkids and people coming from work usually check in at their cafes for a little while. Tourists seem to be going out for dinner, but the restaurants are not even half-full.

There was nobody on the Champs-Elysees yesterday, and the "flipping the switch" to illuminate the avenue has been postponed. The Christmas market was supposed to open at 14h00 today, but given the events, I'm not certain that happened.

I was in Manhattan less than a month after 9/11. It was sad, and slightly scary at times, too. We are glad we went and supported the economy there in our small way, but it was not the trip it would have been a month before 9/11.

The question of safety is impossible to answer.

Xmas market is open on Champs Elysees, I just ate a 'pain saucisse (de Toulouse) there at 3 pm.

I think there are more policemen than customers.

I am in Paris, but frankly I think we'll cancel our week-end that was to take place around the 4th of dec.

Reasons :
- personal ones : we are quite busy and the trip was not that convenient (10% ? - never stopped us before)
- 4-5/12 is just before St Nicolas that we celebrate at home (15% ?)
- COP21 is taking place at that time --> added police, checks, controls, stress etc (50% ?)
- shootings today that seem to be correlated to a planned attack (25% ?)

We can go anytime we want to Paris so for us, staying home is not necessarily such a bad idea.

Your call. Nobody should influence you. Just look at the facts, your timing, your situation and decide.

If somebody wants to call me a coward, so be it.
There are already people who might want to call me a fascist because I applaud to terrorists being shot by the police.

Some rumours have it that there were 3 groups of terrorists :
- the one who did the attack on friday
- the one that was tackled today
- a third one (hypothetical ? )

But rumours...

I was in Manhattan on 9/11 and for several days afterwards and it was scary and unpredictable. Because the city was in lockdown following the attack with F-16's flying low overhead, there was a deep sense of vulnerability not knowing if another attack was imminent. I felt the city was transformed and became "suspended" in crisis mode, even though many of us were trying to put on a brave face and carry on. Resuming any kind of tourist activity was out of the question.

So, no one can really predict how quickly Paris will recover or how the terrorist threat will unfold in the coming days. But, grieving and healing take time, and I suspect that will be the case for Paris.

While it is true that in the first few days after 911 NYC was very quiet - as needed for a variety of emergency issues. And there were issues getting in and out of the city for about a week - due to extra security of people and esp trucks entering.

But within a week the bulk of the city was back to normal (although it was difficult for people working or living in the immediate vicinity of the towers for much longer than that).

However, the attacks in Paris were of a different nature that would not necessarily affect activities in a large part of the city.

So it's really the call of the OP.

If you don't feel totally comfy about going don't - in reality the chances of being harmed or killed is greater during the trip to the airport at home in an accident than in a city of several millions.

Follow your gut feeling and no one can tell you exactly what you or others should do.

Us veteran Parisian travelers and Parisians themselves will say to a man or woman we will go - I am making an especial attempt to visit during Christmas - during one would think an enticing time for a terrorist attack. but the chances of it happening while you are there is small and if so the chances of you being anywhere near it is remote.

but if you can't relax during your trip then it may not be worth it.

NYtraveler said:
>However, the attacks in Paris were of a different nature that would not necessarily affect activities in a large part of the city.<

If there are other terrorist cells in Paris (like the one they dismantled in Saint-Denis), it affects every part of the city--no one can predict if or where they'll strike next. That's the unfortunate reality. 9/11 was a single event in Manhattan, but what's happening in Paris appears to be more extensive.

Only the OP can decide if the safety issues are not worth it right now.

It is an inconvenient truth that terrorist cells are probably operating (in some sense of that word) in all the major cities in Europe. Whether or not they will pull off another attack is impossible to say.

A friend of mine says his theory is Big Earth, Small Me; or, as Pal said, the chances of something happening to you are vanishingly small.

But I would never call someone who decides to avoid the scene of a recent incident a coward. We each of us must do as we see fit.

Over 6,000 rounds of ammunition were fired in a Paris neighbourhood this morning in hopes of arresting an important terrorist. One target caught up in the manhunt exploded a suicide vest, other explosions in the building threatened the stability of the structure. Seven people were arrested, but no confirmation as whether the person whom the police hoped to capture was captured. If not, presumably there will be more raids, either in Paris or elsewhere.

Are you going to Paris during the climate change conference? Some people would feel reassured about all the enhanced security that will be in place. Others would be concerned the police are overstretched, or that visiting the city in such a militarized state is not what they had been looking for when they booked their trip there.

There is no answer, because nobody can see the future.
If you want to visit Paris, it's your decision.

Nobody can promise you that you'll have a fabulous time, just as nobody can assure you that your trip won't be a nightmare.

What happened during somebody's last trip has no bearing on the current situation.
What somebody assumes will happen in the near future has no basis in reality.

Before someone points out that the St Denis neighbourhood where today's raid occurred is not inside Paris, I will. It is just beyond the periphery of Paris proper but within the metro system and is an area often visited by tourists because of the beautiful basilica of St Denis, which was damaged in today's raid.

It isn't just a neighborhood, it's an entire departement separate from the Paris departement and is quite large. Those two plus a couple others make up the Ile de France region. There is also a St Denis arrondisement within the departement by that name, what some think of as a city or town.