While I’ve never had problems myself in most cities of the continent, Paris is another matter. The place has a very intimidating atmosphere, as beautiful as parts of the city are.
I’ve been to the city twice and only travelled on public transport there during the day, and there were drunks, countless people jumping barriers, opportunists waiting at the ticket machines to ‘help’ people, gangs waiting at station exits looking for an easy target. The touristy areas were awful too, where someone tried to mug me by the Sacré-Cœur.
While a lot of the anti-social behaviour concerns me in the UK, I’ve never felt as intimidated as I have in Paris on any of my travels across Europe. Most worrying was the very obvious gang crime in broad daylight, with nothing being done about it.
Should have mentioned it on my first post in this thread.