It was 250 years ago that Frenchmen Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau founded the fur trading post that would become St. Louis. Now the French government has some warnings for travelers heading to the United States.
On a French government website, readers can find a list of American cities the government of France has issued travel warnings about, organized by region.
Sections of Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cleveland are on France’s travel warning list, as is “police violence” sometimes “driven by racial considerations.” Overall, the concept is fair, although it is sometimes over the top, warning tourists in NYC, for example, to be vigilant in restaurants.
The French government advises French travelers to avoid talking about crime issues in the cities they’re traveling in “because of the current international context and to the sensitivity of the American public opinion.”
The U.S. Secretary of State’s website lists 34 countries it has issued travel warnings about, including The Bahamas. France is not among those on the list.
