It was March 1986, and I had just arrived in Paris for the first time in my life. With a few other students from my study-abroad program, I rode the Metro to the landmark where our Paris experience would begin: Place De La Concorde. But, as we all climbed up to street level, my attention was immediately distracted by the site of a policeman from the Gendarmerie Nationale who was positioned by the fountain of Maritime Navigation.
He was dressed in a dark blue tactical uniform, and he carried a magazine-fed, semi-automatic rifle. Although I was only a 16-year-old high-school student …read more

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