Nighttime in Paris

Donna, it should be safe. Can you advise when (which month) you'll be visiting? By May, it stays light quite late, so you won't be wandering around in the dark.

Oops just saw from your other post that you'll be here next week. Sun sets at around 8:30 pm. Depending on the weather, it's not totally dark then anyway! We went onto Daylight Saving Time last Sunday.

You should be at least as safe as in the U.S. if not safer. For the night time illumination part of your questions, we enjoyed an evening (after dark) cruise with Vendettes du Pont Neuf that really gave us views unlike any others in our prior trips.

Visiting next week. Is it safe to travel the Metro after dark or should I take a cab? Will be traveling from the Pyramides to my hotel in the 7th. Was also planning m to tour Montmartre one evening as well and will need to return to the 7th. Would you suggest the Metro or a taxi?

TC -
Could you provide details on where you purchased the tour?
Thanks!

Paris is incredibly safe at night -- the metros and central streets will be full of people out for dinner or sight seeing. Dinner is typically at 8 and you can have a leisurely meal and stroll home without worries. I have done this many times and have taken the metro across town late at night. Sometimes alone and sometimes with my husband; we are Olds.

Seriously. You can be completely relaxed about taking one of the Seine Cruises or joining a tour -- but you can also be comfortable about just strolling along the Seine and around Notre Dame -- there will be hundreds of others doing the same thing.

Paris has very little violent crime against tourists. -worry about your wallet in a pocket or being careless about valuables -- there is a well organized thieving culture that targets easy pickings. But this type of crime is rarely even noticed by the victim until later. Muggings and assaults are almost unheard of. Of course use your city smarts and pay attention to your surroundings, but I would not hesitate to take evening walks, go for dinner or seek out a Seine cruise on your own.

Thank you Janet! Very helpful reply! Appreciate it!! I'll venture out with confidence and my money belt well hidden!

People stay out fairly late, regardless of whether it's dark. There have been a couple of times that I was in an almost empty Metro station with some "hooligan" types horsing around and felt less comfortable, but nothing actually happened. So far, the only times I have resorted to taxis in Paris have been after the Metro closed, and they cost €10 or less; it might be €15 from Montmartre. If there's a bus that fits your plan, then that driver is there/accessible.

Here are links to two of the cruise companies. I have noticed that folks on this sight seem to enjoy/prefer Vedettes due Pont Neuf over Bateaux Parisiens.

Bateaux Parisiens: http://www.bateauxparisiens.com/cruise-tours-paris/sightseeing-cruise-paris.html

Vedettes du Pont Neuf: http://vedettesdupontneuf.com/home/

Enjoy.

We bought tickets at the starting point about one half hour before the tour. Sitting on top will give you the best views. The starting point is noted on their web site. Googlemaps.com has street level views of the area so you can "walk" the route to it before you even leave home.

Thanks TC! I'll check it out. And I appreciate the tip about Google maps!

I have also enjoyed Fat Tire bike tours night bike tour in Paris. It concludes with a boat ride. If you want to see more and be active in a group. Really fun riding around at night. Never felt unsafe walking back to the hotel after. I have done this with each of my kids when they were 11.

Pickpocketing is not opportunistic crime in Paris in the sense of some kid who just sees a chance; it is well organized; the young women who predominate often work in teams; the takings are passed along to the bosses. It is child abuse. We know someone who had 20 K on their card in the two hours it took them to get back to the hotel and report the theft. Sure some random kid may just grab a phone off a table, but most of it is a job, not a random act.

The 3 card monte games are also well organized with lookouts to alert for police and often shills that are chosen because they look like western tourists. I have friends who live near where they often operate and we have watched the operations often.

Don't worry about a money belt for just walking around at night -- leave your valuables in the hotel safe and just keep a few Euros and a card in your cross body purse or an inside secure pocket and then don't worry. Pickpockets target the easy money like wallets in pockets or a purse carried behind or a backpack. My sense is they are also less likely to be operating in the evening but I may be wrong.

Janet's absolutely right on the organization of the pickpocketing gangs. Sad but true.

I respectfully disagree. It clearly is organized crime that has a hand in the pickpocketing schemes in Paris. A search of reliable French press sources turns up dozens of articles with just a simple search. e.g.,

Trois ans d’enquête ont été nécessaires pour démanteler le réseau. Trois ans d’observation, de collecte d’information et de traque. Aujourd’hui, le procès du cœur présumé du réseau Hamidovic touche à sa fin. Vingt-deux personnes étaient présentes dans le box des accusés depuis le 25 mars pour répondre de traite d'être humains, association de malfaiteurs et provocation de mineurs à commettre des délits. À leur tête, selon l’accusation, Féhim et Behija Hamidovic, cueillis par la police en Italie où ils menaient grand train dans leur grande villa cossue de Rome. Également propriétaire d’une maison secondaire et d’une porsche Cayenne, le couple ne déclarait aucun revenu. Tous les 15 jours, les fils du couple se rendaient dans le sud de la France où les belles-filles et les nièces du couple Hamidovic venaient leur remettre les sommes dérobées dans le métro de Paris, mais aussi de Madrid et de Bruxelles.

http://www.france24.com/fr/20130424-pickpockets-tourisme-hamidovic-reseau-metro-paris-bandes-mineurs

Ils sont soupçonnés de plus de mille vols à la tire commis ces six derniers mois dans l’enceinte des parcs Disneyland Paris, aux abords des gares de Chessy-Marne-la-Vallée et de Serris mais aussi dans le quartier Pigalle (Paris IXe). Selon les enquêteurs, le préjudice des vols s’élèverait à plus d’un million d’euros. Les voleurs, pour partie des mineurs, s’attaquaient principalement à des touristes étrangers.

. . . .L’office central de lutte contre la délinquance itinérante (OCLDI), rattaché à la section judiciaire de la gendarmerie a ensuite été cosaisi et a permis d’identifier les têtes du réseau après de lourdes investigations réalisées entre juillet 2015 et aujourd’hui. Un couple originaire de Roumanie qui exploiterait leurs enfants mineurs et majeurs. Très mobiles, ils vivaient selon leurs moyens dans des hôtels de Seine-Saint-Denis, entre Pantin, Livry-Gargan et Aubervilliers ou des campements Roms du secteur. La mère des enfants a également une peine de prison à effectuer en Roumanie.

Ils sont poursuivis par le parquet de Meaux pour vols en bande organisée, recel en bande organisée, traite d’êtres humains et blanchiment d’argent.

http://www.leparisien.fr/chessy-77700/region-parisienne-vague-d-arrestations-de-pickpockets-roumains-09-02-2016-5529177.php

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/justice/des-pickpockets-roumains-volaient-jusqu-a-5000-euros-par-jour_1545648.html

Des pickpockets roumains volaient jusqu'à 5000 euros par jour
Actualité Société Justice
Par LEXPRESS.fr , publié le 22/05/2014 à 18:56

Les deux réseaux ont été démantelés en septembre 2013. Ils officiaient
depuis août 2012. Chaque jour pendant cette période, des jeunes hommes
et femmes venus d'Europe de l'Est, déguisés en touristes - appareil
photo en bandoulière -, ont méthodiquement dépouillé les touristes
asiatiques absorbés dans la contemplation des oeuvres - ces derniers
étant réputés pour détenir d'importantes sommes en liquide, rappelle
le quotidien.

5000 euros volés chaque jour Leurs lieux de crime: le Louvre, le musée
d'Orsay, la tour Eiffel ou encore le château de Versailles. Leur
entreprise était rentable: chaque réseau parvenait à gagner jusqu'à
5000 euros par jour. L'enquête, menée par la sûreté territoriale avec
le commissariat du Ier arrondissement et ses officiers de liaison
roumains détachés à Paris, a débuté au printemps 2013, lorsque les
agents des musées, quotidiennement agressés par ces pickpockets
roumains, se sont mis en grève.

France24 report, 4/24/2013
http://www.france24.com/fr/20130424-pickpockets-tourisme-hamidovic-reseau-metro-paris-bandes-mineurs
Excerpt:

Trois ans d’enquête ont été nécessaires pour démanteler le réseau. Trois ans d’observation, de collecte d’information et de traque. Aujourd’hui, le procès du cœur présumé du réseau Hamidovic touche à sa fin. Vingt-deux personnes étaient présentes dans le box des accusés depuis le 25 mars pour répondre de traite d'être humains, association de malfaiteurs et provocation de mineurs à commettre des délits. À leur tête, selon l’accusation, Féhim et Behija Hamidovic, cueillis par la police en Italie où ils menaient grand train dans leur grande villa cossue de Rome. Également propriétaire d’une maison secondaire et d’une porsche Cayenne, le couple ne déclarait aucun revenu. Tous les 15 jours, les fils du couple se rendaient dans le sud de la France où les belles-filles et les nièces du couple Hamidovic venaient leur remettre les sommes dérobées dans le métro de Paris, mais aussi de Madrid et de Bruxelles.

"It's taken three years of investigation to dismantle the network. Three years of observation, of collecting information, and hunting/tracing/following. Today, the case against the presumed heart of the Hamidovic network arrives at its end. 22 people have been in the defendants' box since March 25 to respond to charges of trafficking in persons, association with criminals, and provocation of minors to commit crimes. At their head, according to the charges, Fehim and Behija Hamidovic, picked up by the police in Italy where they lived large in their luxurious huge villa in Rome. Also owners of a second home and a Cayenne Porsche, the couple never declared any earnings. Every two weeks, the couple's sons went to the south of France where the stepdaughters (or granddaughters) and nieces of the Hamidovics came to bring them the sums they had stole in the Paris metro, but also in Madrid and Brussels."

I write about pickpockets not to scare people but to help people prepare NOT to be pickpocketed. I know many people who have experienced this including one local friend. If you are not a walking buffet you don't lose your stuff. Many tourists put a wallet in a back pocket or cargo pant -- or even a front pocket -- all of which are easy pickings. Don't do stuff like this and you will be fine. I spend a lot of time in Paris. I know lots of people who have been picked. And you may recall that the Police Chief of Paris lost his phone to a picker a couple of years ago.

The bad news is that the places where picking is most likely to occur are places where tourists congregate. Recently that has been the Louvre where the staff went on strike last year in protest of the aggressive rampant pickpocket action there.

Donna, I've traveled 3 times to Paris solo. Have never felt threatened or concerned walking around at night. It's The City of Lights and gorgeous. Enjoy your stay.

A few of years ago in Montmarte I decided to do just that as I was walking up the block there, ie stop and watch the 3 card game, actually it was the game with the thimble. Obviously it's rigged and you don't play, but in the past I always ignored it, not this time in 2011. There was crowd watching, so did I. I noticed that every time a person won, usually a woman, it was someone of the players' own ethnic group, if you want to be ethnic about it. So obvious, if "they" didn't figure that out. That's what you recognise. Did any tourist play? I recall at least one did participate and lost. What I was looking for was who "won" as to entice some bystander like I was to get in on it . If "they" expected that seeing that the women "win," I must have disappointed them since soon after 15 mins or so I walked away.

In 1992 in Berlin on Kurfürstendamm I saw the same activity/scam go on suckering any person to play and lose. The official difference there was that you saw flyers posted on shop windows written in German and English warning people not to play since this was organised crime from Romania, plus the news "you cannot win." That must have been received as the good news.

I've removed and edited a number of posts here to eliminate an argument. This is a reminder that arguments are not tolerated here. Everyone's opinion is to be respected. Differing opinions can and should be shared without negatively referring to someone else's advice. Please use the Report feature so that we can handle any inappropriate behavior and guideline violations.

Thanks everyone!

Thanks Claudia! Looking forward to it!!

Are the constant reminders about the pickpocket situation in Paris really necessary? Surely most, if not all, people planning to go to Paris who engage in posting on this RS site, first timers or not, are well-read enough, intelligent enough, on the ball enough, informed enough, to be aware of this particular peril. It's not as if it just began the day before yesterday. It is an age-old petty crime. Apart from anything else, the constant warnings lead one to think that Europe is Pickpocket Central, and the rest of the planet can be travelled with not a worry in the world.

woinparis ..... please do not leave us. You have much to offer. Stick around.

I agree with Norma, stick around please, woninparis. I appreciate your positive comments, as I do those of others.

Pickpocketing is an issue in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. I haven't been to Africa so I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me. Only Americans seem to lack the skills or motivation to be good pickpockets. I guess we should be grateful for small favors in the crime department.

In case you're still wondering after all these digressions, Donna, Paris is safe at night and you'll be fine with common sense.

Thanks one and all!!

Thanks woinparis! Taking the cruise and the illuminations your. Didn't see
a tour with a meal. Jazz would be awesome while dining on the Seine!

I must admit, all the constant posting about pickpockets in Paris has made me quite uneasy as I prepare to go there in 45 days. However, I was just as anxious about Prague last year after reading Rick's strenuous cautions in the guide book, and that ended up fine--as always, I wear a belt-loop pouch, carry a crossbody bag and observe all the usual precautions. I plan to be out and about exploring Paris in the early evening, sounds like I'll have plenty of company.

Dinner Cruises:
http://www.bateauxparisiens.com/en/meal-cruise.html

http://www.cometoparis.com/catalog/dinner-cruise-paris-202

http://www.calife.com/english/Croisiere/Diner_croisiere.html
If memory serves me right, Calife is the only cruise that actually cooks on board, the others have their food prepped off ship.

Dinner Bus: http://www.bustronome.com

Christa you will be fine. People who are prepared and do what you do with regard to common sense safeguarding of possessions don't lose them to pickers. There are plenty of easy targets. And generally they won't even notice till they discover stuff missing. Be sensible about how you stow your stuff then don't worry about it. These are not muggers; they are artful dodgers.