Safety in Paris

When visiting or living in Paris, there are a few things to be aware of regarding safety. Ironically, since last writing  my blog I have already experienced first hand what it's like to be "pick-pocketed" in the subway. It occurred just a few days ago while walking through one of the tunnels between metro changes. Thieves come in all shapes and sizes here, but you particularly need to pay attention to young immigrant girls who typically travel in groups and will often have clipboards in the metro asking for monetary donations for some supposed cause they are raising money for. I had seen them several times in Paris in large groups of young girls between ages ten to sixteen who scope out tourist areas to try and find their latest "victim." They will sometimes surround the victim to try and intimidate and distract them so that one of the girls in the group can steal from the victim, or as a classic pick-pocketer, they will simply follow you and steal from your purse, bag or pockets. This is what happened to me as I was walking in the metro. I felt as if my bag on my shoulder was moving for some reason and when I looked back there was a young girl walking right behind me with noone else around. When I checked my bag, I realized she had stolen what luckily was just a pencil case. So a word of advice, make sure you keep your belongings close and in front of you in the subway. Keep all your valuables tucked away tightly and be aware of your surroundings. They say if you need to use your phone, do it with your back against a wall so that noone can come up behind you unexpectedly while you're distracted with the phone. Also, concerning the use of IPhones, make sure to keep them hidden or tucked away in the metro. This is because there are a lot of IPhones being stolen, particularly in the subways, by thieves who want to resell them I suppose. So, if you can wait until you're out of the metro before making a phone call I would recommend this since you will be less distracted and you won't advertise to potential thieves that you have a phone worth stealing.

As for the young thieves, you can find them in different areas of Paris. I have even seen them in grocery stores trying to steal items from the store and from customers. If you should see them near you, just walk around them or in another direction if you need to to avoid any encounters with them as they can also be aggressive at times. It's a sad reality of living in Paris, but true. It's actually quite sad to see them as they are all undocumented immigrants and you can tell they haven't lived an easy life from their worn-down faces and expressions. I understand they are trying to survive, but it's not fair what they are doing to innocent people.

My other recent experience on the metro involved a more sexual nature unfortunately. I was on the metro with my boyfriend during "traffic hour" in the evening and a man on the metro starting talking casually to us. Mind you, the train was completely packed with other people as well. Within a few minutes I noticed out of the corner of my eye that he was scratching himself in his private area, and a few seconds after that he was whistling while  masturbating through his pant pocket! Oh mon dieu! We quickly got off the train when we realized what he was doing. I asked my boyfriend if he had ever experienced this before, and in the ten years he's been in Paris he said this was the first time. Lucky me! I'm not sure you can really do anything to prevent something like this from happening but I would suggest that women need to stay particularly aware of such things when traveling on the metro.

I realize it's very easy for tourists and new visitors in Paris to become completely distracted and overwhelmed by the beauty of the city and all there is to look at and see, but please make sure to pay attention to your belongings when you're admiring everything. Living in Montmartre, I can say this is a high tourist area and therefore a good area for pick-pocketers and other opportunists. You will find lots of different kinds of people asking and begging for money, use your best judgement when giving out money of course, but still make sure to pay attention to your surroundings and your belongings at the same time.

If you're a woman traveling alone, stay in areas where there are a good amount of people and be careful of which metro lines you travel on especially at night. Even though I've lived in a big city like Los Angeles most of my life, in Paris I tend to feel more vulnerable because of the higher concentration of people, the smaller streets, the lack of space and the agressiveness of the men. I don't mean physical agressiveness but rather the men in Paris seem to be much more forward in their approach to women by trying to ask their name and phone-number more readily and particularly if you're walking or sitting alone somewhere.

Paris is a fantastic city, as with any big city though, just make sure to stay aware of your surroundings. Happy travels!