Bomb Scare

A package of dynamite was found today at one of Paris's ritziest department stores. It did not contain a detonator and no one was hurt. I don't live, work or shop in that area, so no danger there.

This sort of thing shouldn't be a surprise, I suppose; Britain, Spain and Germany have all been targets of Middle Eastern terrorism, so (assuming the package was in fact placed, as claimed, by someone linked to Afghanistan) why not France?

In general, though, this city seems far less on edge about security than London or New York. It's extremely rare to see armed security guards or even uniformed police officers walking a beat. They make very occasional announcements about not leaving belongings unattended in the Metro, but far less frequently there than in other cities.

My office building is a bit more secure than my company's office in the U.S.; you need an electronic tag to get through not only the street-level door but to enter the offices on each floor. I don't know how that compares to other French office buildings because I haven't needed to go to any others.

Residential buildings do generally have an extra layer of protection that you don't see in the U.S., however. Most buildings have a locked door that you have to get through before you can even buzz an individual apartment; this door is opened by a numeric code that the host has to give you before you can come in. It's quite common to see these "door codes" on invitations.

But whether this arrangement is for security purposes, or just to maintain people's privacy, I'm not sure.

EDITED 5:15p Paris time to reflect that it was a package of dynamite without a detonator, ergo not really a bomb ...