Giverny, France--Claude Monet and Roving teen gangs! Beware!

Sorry to hear about your bad luck. This is unpleasant news to all of us, because it could happen to any of us. It's a good argument for parking in secure overnight parking (which you did), leaving nothing in the car, and paying for CDW. But we've all violated those guidelines and most of the time gotten away with it. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time--could happen to any of us.

We parked our car in a lighted parking lot by the hotel. The parking lot had a fence around it and a gate. The thieves had to drive into the hotel lot to get to our car. I don 't think that this could happen to just anyone and that there is a distinct problem in this area of Giverny and Vernon. We did not have this problem in any other area of France. We drove the car from Zurich, Switzerland to Strasburg, France and then to Reims before going to Giverny. This was the only area where we had problems. The area is very misleading because of all of the gardens and beautiful flowers--but look closely at the fences, gates and pictures of guard dogs posted on the gates!
T&K

How upsetting this must have been for you, you took reasonable precautions, parked in what looked like a secure place! The stats say there's a higher rate of theft of and from cars in some areas, for example, southern France and parts of Italy. But you can't generalize, it can happen anywhere.

I too am sorry that your car was broken into to...but out of curiosity i was trying to find the aticle about Crime in Giverny. For years we've watched the regional and national news and never saw anything about the roving gangs of teenagers in Giverny..so, i was just curious...And don't want to generalize, but 75% of houses have fences, hedges and gates, just to define your territory, not because of fear of crime, even though we lock the gate when we go out

Teress, sorry to hear about your experience. Kent makes a good point noting that most of us have taken chances from time to time leaving things in a rental car (always a risk, and not just in Europe. These kind of break ins are very common in high tourist traffic areas such as Hawaii, Florida etc). You don't say where the bags were. I'm wondering if they were locked in the trunk or if there were items visible in the car? In any event, thanks for sharing your experience. It is a reminder that every time we leave items in an unattended vehicle we are taking a chance. As for the roving gangs of teenagers...perhaps a comment that could be made (justly or not) about much of the world. Cheers

Our car was parked in a private parking lot beside the Hotel. The parking lot was gated and fenced with security lights. I think that what was striking in this instance is that none of my belongings were taken, although they were dumped on the ground including some expensive jewelry. Only my daughter's suitcase was taken. She is 19 years old and had brought all of her expensive clothes to wear in Paris and London. We think that she was followed to the Inn and targeted since she was the only guest to lose anything (the parking lot had over 20 cars parked in it). Our suitcases were not visible and were under the boot. That was another reason that we thought it was odd that our car was the only one broken into. Again, we think that we were followed or spotted at the Inn. When I googled "Crime in Giverny, France" I got an article on Vernon which described Giverny and Vernon. The news story was originally broadcast by the BBC and described how an elderly man was beaten in a robbery. The article said that the police seemed to be afraid to do anything. The article talked about crime because of low unemployment and roving teenagers.

Teress, this was very unfortunate. I can picture my daughter's (20)reaction if this happened to her (it would not have been pretty). It does sound as if you were targeted. Hard to believe otherwise given the circumstances you describe. France in general has had problems with high unemployment for youth, and the occurence of non violent crime can be a problem. Although, in truth not much different than other places in the world with high tourist traffic(It wasn't that many years ago that we were reading about car jackings in Miami where tourists were murdered). I guess the obvious observation re your situation is to note that the crime could have been prevented if the suitcases were in the hotel and not left unattended in the boot. The theif/theives clearly had reason to believe your daughter's belongings were in the car. But as Kent and I both noted, we've all left things in the trunk from time to time hoping we won't be targeted. Hopefully this bad luck didn't ruin your trip!