Should I stay or should I go…

We travel to Paris every year for Thanksgiving and meet friends from Wales. With the recent terror attacks in the City of Light, many have asked us if we still plan to visit Paris.

We understand that many will not go to Paris because they will be in a constant state of fear (and that would be a terrible way to travel). Here are five reasons why we are going to Paris this week.

1. If we don’t go, the terrorists win.  The terrorists want us to stay at home in fear. If we fail to travel, the terrorists have succeeded in one of their goals.
2. The risk of being killed by a terrorist is incredibly small. The State Department has reported that 278 Americans have been killed in terrorist attacks overseas in the last decade. You have a better chance of being killed by a gun in the US than by a terrorist overseas. Remember that 375 Americans have been killed in mass shootings in this year alone.
3. Paris is in a heightened state of security. Yes, there can be additional attacks by terrorist in Paris, but Paris has upped security in their “State of Emergency.”
4. We know this will be a different trip. We’ll be extra careful. We’ll be more aware of our surroundings.
5. Paris is the most fabulous city in the world, not because of the Eiffel Tower or the Champs-Élysées, but because there’s simply no other place in the world like it. It’s called the City of Light, but perhaps it should be called the City of Promise. Around every corner is the promise of another beautiful street, another bistro filled with people eating delicious food (Paris is a city where you have to work at having a bad meal), another building that in any other city would be remarkable, but in Paris is just another building. Walk down practically any block in Paris, and the sights, smells and sounds will excite you.

 
Paris may never be the same, but we will not be abandoning it.

---