When I planned a research trip to France for Thieves of Paris in 2014, before the ISIS attack, my brother asked me why I couldn’t just do my research on the Internet and from my home near Washington, DC. He had a point.

Washington boasts Archives of the United States, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Library of Congress. But Paris held the sounds and sights that I longed for after visiting and working around the world.

I first fell in love with Paris while I was teaching as an English lecturer at the University of Münster in Germany. In a grand tour before I started teaching, I visited the City of Light–the opera, the outdoor food markets, walking everywhere! I always want to go back!

Now the question is the same–Why visit Paris?–but the attacks on cafés, sports venues and entertainment have made people hesitate. Not me. Is Paris so different from New York? “Meme pas peur!” says a sign, held up by a young Parisian: Not afraid!

Beauty over savagery!