Originally Posted by
beachfan
If you look at the pictures of the extent of the damage - Place Vendome, Tuleries, Rue de Rivoli, Place d'lOpera as well as Champ d'Elysee and Arc de Triomphe, you can see that this is extremely beyond the usual, at least for the center of Paris.
and, sorry for the double post, but friends and family in France who are following on local/national news, say that this is being described as the most violent action in more than 40 years, so yeah, definitely not the norm.