I've seen French police carrying sidearms in every trip I've made to Paris and Normandy.
Every train station has armed police -- municipal and the French 'State police' -- and at all the significant tourist landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, and the Arc de Triomph I've even seen French Army 'rangers' on patrol with service rifles. There's a pic above in this thread showing exactly that.
I even was witness to an armed police confrontation with some kids acting wild outside my hotel two trips ago.
... and in London, I saw less of the unarmed bobby policemen but lots more of the London police walking around or standing on post carrying Hk MP5s. Saw a group of three shortly after deplaning at Heathrow and at every train stop. The US Embassy in London is a flippin' fortress of armed police outside the gates and the bobbies in Picadilly Square were even patrolling in groups of eight or more all carrying pistol caliber carbines.
A tour guide on one of the 'Big Red Bus' tours that service the London metro area pointed out that special 'flying squad' police cars painted with an blaze orange stripe denoted the segment of police who are authorized to carry guns. I couldn't help notice that I saw more of these orange-emblazoned police cruisers in London than I saw of the other kind of police cars that presumably aren't the kind that carry gun-toting policemen.
I think I wrote TheScotsman last week that I've seen more guns in the hands of British police in three trips to London than I've ever seen in the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department after living in LA for thirty years.
Tell that to Ms Gilfoyle on Fox.