Spring is here in Paris, and so is the army. Camouflaged soldiers with assault rifles patrol the airports and train stations, and armed police loiter on street corners. Since last November’s Islamist massacres, the police have conducted more than 2,500 raids and held hundreds of suspects. In mid-February, the National Assembly voted to extend the state of emergency by another three months. The Assembly also endorsed the first part of the Hollande government’s anti-terrorism proposals. These included modifying the constitution of 1958 to permit a four-month state of emergency, and placing suspected terrorists under house arrest for up to six months. Another proposal, to cancel the French citizenship of terrorists with dual nationality, was subsequently abandoned. The state of emergency is shaping the emerging state of France.

I flew in from London late on a wet Friday afternoon. Heathrow had been frantic as usual, but the terminal at Charles de Gaulle was half empty. As I waited to buy my train ticket to Gare du Nord, the only person in the line ahead of me was a short, frightened-looking Arab man. The woman behind the counter called him, but he did not understand, and stayed where he was. I prompted him in French, but he still did not move. Finally, the woman waved him forwards, and I ushered him up to the counter. He produced a crumpled piece of paper and tried to read it to her—a Métro station near the home of a friend or relative?—but