Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur and other Paris, France Warning Or Danger Tips

My girlfriend and I went to Paris last week and it was the most magical experience of our lives. However our visits to the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur were tainted by the street vendors who are more aggressive than anything I have come across at home in Ireland. A description of the typical "aggressive" street vendor would go as follows:

male
tall
athletic build
bilingual (French and English)
black

I use the word aggressive in the sense that they won't take "no" for an answer easily but rather follow you harassing and intimidating you into buying whatever it is that they are selling.

At the tower one of them followed us trying to convince us to buy a model of the tower. I was disgusted by the fact that he wasn't harassing me but rather my girlfriend. He knew it would be easier to intimidate her then me so he focused on her. All I could do was take her by the hand and led her away from him but he followed us for about 200 metres trying to convince her to buy one. On the road leading to the tower there were more men all of the same description ready to pick up where the first one left off.

At the Sacre Coeur the story is similar. On the approach to it we were confronted by two of them with bracelets ready to tie around our wrists. Unfortunately they are on every approach to the top so you have to confront them at least once on your way up.

There were police in both areas but they made sure not to notice all this was happening. It's a tremendous pity because the city really is beautiful and just a little bit more enthusiasm from the Parisian police could make it perfect.

There are of course other tourist traps in Paris. We were asked four times on the trip, three of them at Notre Dame, if we wanted a "cheap" portrait drawn of us. However the difference between these and the guys at the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur is that when you say "no" to portrait artists they leave you alone! All of the vendors seem to concentrate either on couples like us, lost in the romance of it all or on women.

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