A recent one-day labor action at the famed Louvre museum should give all senior travelers something to think about. The museum employees weren’t asking for more money, but protection against gangs of aggressive pickpockets who’ve just about taken over the famed Paris institution.

If your spring and summer plans include visiting Paris or just about any other large city, follow the basic rules of self protection from street crime. Senior tourists are particularly easy targets, because pickpockets know they react slowly and are too often distracted while they take in the city sights.

Here are some very basic rules for protecting yourself as you travel this season:

Many of our senior travelers have slowed down physically over the years. As tourists in some cities, they're too often the most vulnerable to fast-moving pickpockets. They need to find ways to avoid being victims of these crimes.

The thieves, male and female, kid and adult, sometimes operate singly where people are crowded together, such as in city squares, tour groups, airports, concert halls and bus stations. There are also gangs, often kids who surround a tourist asking for money. Then, in the confusion swipe wallets, pocketbooks, cell phones and other easy-picking items.

It seems almost every day, airlines are redesigning their cabins to squeeze more passengers into the cheap seats. Just recently, Southwest did it by adding several more rows of seats, thereby making the already-cramped passenger spaces even more uncomfortable for anyone over 3 foot 10.

Now a company has come up with the Knee Defender, a device that prevents the passenger in front of you from inclining the seat into your vulnerable leg parts. The small, portable $20 plastic block locks onto your tray table and keeps the seat in front from pushing into your vulnerable space.

Instead, of course, as you settle into your seat before the flight, you can politely ask the passenger in front of you not to push back. As is our experience, you may then get the angry lecture about paying for the seat and the need to squeeze your knees, because the guy in front of him is also tilting and squeezing.

For more information, go to kneedefender.com/html2/how_to.htm

There’s a simple trick you can use to make the elevator an express just for you. It may be selfish to do it when the busy elevator is full of people, but there are times when you need to get to your upper-floor room fast. Then, the trick may be even more necessary when you’re riding the elevator down and you’re late for an appointment or airport limo pick-up.

When you get aboard the elevator, simply hit and hold down two buttons simultaneously for a second or two. That’s the one with your floor number on it (or lobby) and the close-the-door button. In most elevators, it will make your ride non-stop. If you prefer to avoid flack from other people for your trick, do it only when you’re alone on the elevator.