PARIS, FRANCE — Arriving here late last Friday evening, I had essentially a full Saturday with my family to see as much of this historic city as we could muster. I had never visited before. The weather was hardly ideal — mid-90s, nasty hot. The week preceding likewise had not been exactly ideal for a visit. Rioting had broken out over the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy. For several consecutive days, protests raged. Fortunately, the street fires had cooled by the time we got there.

“Has the rioting stopped?” I asked our cab driver. “Yes,” he replied. “It is finished.”

The driver took us past the main square that served as a flashpoint of the protests. “See,” he said, “it’s all cleaned up. But last week? Very bad.”

It did appear to be cleaned up. For now. …

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