Attack at Gare du Nord in Paris

Also a good reason to carry your passport. Although I am picturing the police taking off your pants to find the hidden passport pouch. Or the medical staff finding it and tossing it aside where it disapears and your loved ones not hearing about you for a week or two

I carry ID on me. I see no need to carry my passport just because of this?

Just a thought. I live and work in Japan. Also have lived in Taiwan and France. Was in France this past summer. I have seen police stop people - mostly males - and ask for I.D. In Taiwan we were instructed that, as foreigners, we MUST always have our passport on us and MUST show it to police, if requested. One friend of mine in Taiwan was not carrying his. He was actually taken back to his apartment, had about 5 minutes to grab what he could, taken to jail overnight! and deported the next day. In Japan I have been stopped, but I speak Japanese fairly well and have Permanent Residence, which is listed on my foreigner I.D. card, so the police actually apologized and I was on my way. Due to foreigner I.D. here, I do not need to carry my passport. Many foreigners do not carry theirs in Japan. In France, I was stopped once by police who asked ( = demanded) to see my I.D. Showed my passport, which I ALWAYS carry in a money belt. They checked it, and were actually very nice. I speak French pretty well, so we then had a good conversation. They had been alerted to look for someone who fairly closely matches my description - a foreigner. They did ask why I was there and where I was staying. I explained my trip was a mixture of sightseeing and research at the National Archives. They suddenly seemed greatly impressed and things turned out very pleasantly. Yes, I always carry my passport overseas, except for in Japan, which is explained above. Best wishes to Frank II and all on their way to France.

I am so sorry for those that were attacked. Is the best response we can come up an argument over passports?

Carol now retired; of course you are correct. I guess I was just trying to suggest in a somewhat light way that the incident might make one take stock of how one might be prepared if it involved them. Some of us travel alone most of the time and that brings up an even more heightened awareness of "what if" and how will I be sure the body gets shipped to the right address?

There was the Bastille day attack in Nice in 2016 that killed 89, and the Bataclan attack in Paris in 2015 that killed 150 (There is a great documentary about that entire attack in French by the way). The 2018 train attack that was made into a movie by Clint Eastwood - plus many more. But there are also attacks in UK and general knife crimes there. There must be stuff happening in Spain too with all the security they put on their high speed trains. I was just in Istanbul a few months ago, and left Turkey just after the bombing there in a place we had been.

Thats life. Things can even happen in your own home town.

My personal bad memory of Gare du Nord - was the French police refusing to allow me to board a train to London because the French government suddenly decided to close the border and I lost my expensive ticket with no refund and was sorta trapped not able to leave the country.