20 tourists robbed outside Paris hotel
 

http://www.straitstimes.com/world/eu...-airport-hotel

I know this has been reported over and over and over, but when will the situation improve? The scale and frequency of these robberies happening are downright frightening.

Moving this to the France Forum
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Barring some major political changes, I suppose the only ones who could reliably stop this type of thing would be armed hotel security guards..

Not just hotels, but all around the city... the romanticization of Paris seems to finally be giving way to reality now.

According to the reports I have read, the hotel was the Novotel on the airport. There might be bigger security concerns that just the loss of a few passenger bags.

Looks like the Olympics will be in Paris in 2024... let's hope it gets cleaned up by then!

I doubt that the majority of people heading to Paris for the Olympics will be targeted by that kind of robberies. Those are obviously targeted robberies, i.e. carefully picked passengers that are worth robbing. Unless you arrive with a briefcase full of cash, jewellery or other valuables, I doubt that another similar sized city will be less dangerous than Paris.

there is probably a larger increase in crimes in HK since the police had been being a asslicker of the commies to fight down oppositions, hadnt you realized? a few people got killed. is hk any more dangerous than it was?

Wondering if this was sarcasm I had missed?

Wow, had no idea. My friend and I stayed at the IBIS Styles (adjacent to the RER terminal) and had no feeling of it not being safe. The 50-100 meters between the hotel and terminal was a bit torn up; lots of construction, not really impressive, but again, no feeling of it being unsafe.

It was curious that there was an agent helping people figure out how to use the machines to buy tickets for the RER; had not seen that before, and it might have been a way to create a more visible presence to deter thieves.

But I guess if you were a thief, the Novotel would be a much better target, client-wise, than the IBIS Styles. For what it's worth, the IBIS-Styles impressed me greatly, fantastic value at $110 for two, including a very impressive breakfast offering.

By the way, Paris isn't my favorite part of France; for the most part, it's simply my gateway to the Alps or Pyrenees. But I've not had scary issues there. The idea that people need to fear for their safety is, I would say, unfounded. Further, I don't think I've been to another country with such an obvious presence of local and national police. People shouldn't read this thread and fear for their safety.

My partner & I are planning on visiting the Arc de Triomphe during the evening and were wondering how safe it would be around that area after dark. We may have to wait for the bus to get back to our hotel.

We are trying to get a particular photo we were unable to get 3 years ago.

In 2011 I had travelled around Paris during the late evening without any hassles.

You are more likely to see heavily-armed militia than thieves. That's a very busy area; I don't think it likely you'd ever feel isolated.

There is always the danger of pickpockets but otherwise, you are completely safe.