Paris commemorates victims of 2015 terrorist attacks

PARIS (CN) — On Thursday, Paris resident Michel Pinardon strolled out of a police-controlled perimeter around La Belle Équipe, a popular neighborhood hangout in the 11th arrondissement of the city. Ten years ago, his sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and three friends from high school were assassinated on its terrace.

“It was the birthday of a friend,” Pinardon said, exhaling as he looked toward the café. “Since the terrorists fired a lot, there were a lot of deaths.”

On Nov. 13, 2015, Islamic State terrorists carried out the deadliest attacks on French soil since World War II. They opened fire on the capital’s Stade de France stadium, Bataclan concert hall and numerous restaurants and cafés, killing 130 people and leaving hundreds of others wounded. The night left a permanent mark on the collective memory of Paris, which commemorated the victims at multiple ceremonies throughout the city on Thursday.

At roughly 1:45 p.m., inside the police perimeter surrounding La Belle Équipe, black chairs were propped up on the road next to a sign reading “FAMILIES.” One man wrapped his arm around a woman as the names of the victims were read out loud. She rested her head on his shoulder.

The ceremony, which French President Emmanuel Macron attended, was strictly reserved for families and a tight list of invitees. But local residents gathered along the margins, many with tears in their eyes, craning their necks to watch the proceedings.

Jean-Marie Thibault, a now-retired Frenchman who used to work on the nearby Rue Titon, looked calmly toward La Belle Équipe, where he used to be a regular during his lunch hour. On the night of the attacks, he was at his son’s house in another area of Paris, and got the news when his phone started ringing off the hook.

“We had a hard time understanding what was happening,” Thibault said. “I knew I could never go back [to the café].”

Thibault explained that while he admires those who were able to return, he couldn’t personally handle it.

“Like I heard from others including direct victims, there’s a fine line between wanting to move on and now wanting to forget,” he said.

Pinardon said he can no longer sit on Paris café terraces unless he’s facing outward, where he can see the road traffic.

“I have no more fear, or almost none,” he explained, glancing toward wooden tables set up outside of an Italian restaurant. “You see the terrace there? I can sit there, but I have to look out… it’s very specific to Paris, in Italy or other places I can.”

Roughly one mile down the road, police blocked off access to the Bataclan concert hall, where the California rock group Eagles of Death Metal were playing a show on the night of the attacks. People initially thought the sounds of AK-47s firing into the crowd were part of the performance before realizing the venue was under attack.

Some people escaped out of the emergency exit door, others hid in closets and under the bodies of people who had been shot. It took roughly two hours for the assault to end, and 89 people died.

On Thursday, people brought flowers and gazed somberly toward the concert hall. Maëlys Blanchart, a 27-year-old musician, was one of these people. Beyond feeling a personal connection to the venue as a place of music, she said her brother was at the Stade de France on the night of the attacks, and her memory of the night was pure panic.

“We couldn’t get in touch with him before the phone lines were down,” she said, adding that the family eventually learned that he was alive two hours later, when he marked himself as safe on Facebook.

Blanchart attends concerts at the Bataclan said she sometimes thinks about the attacks when inside. But that’s not enough to stop her from going.

“Life goes on, but we can’t forget,” she said.

Macron, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and hundreds of ministers, families and survivors dedicated a new “Jardin du 13 Novembre 2015” memorial garden for the victims near the town hall. The ceremony was closed to the public but broadcast onto a screen at the République square, where hundreds of people sat and gathered, many with tears in their eyes.

For Parisians, the Nov. 13 attacks hold a similar place in the collective memory as 9/11 — everyone remembers where they were when the news broke, and the ghostly atmosphere in the days that followed. Café terraces, a staple of the city, were shuttered or empty; many stayed at home with the lights off, fearing more attacks.

But Paris gradually began to come back to life. In her speech at the dedication, Hidalgo spoke of the café terraces that quickly began to fill up in the days following the attacks; today, La Belle Equipe bustles with friends gathered in groups, clinking glasses on its terrace until 2 a.m. Regulars sip coffee outside in the morning, sitting peacefully with a book in hand. The Bataclan hosts concerts almost nightly.

The ceremony closed with a choir performing “Shooting Stars,” a song by Rival Sons. Its lyrics chant “My love is stronger than yours, It’s stronger than yours, It’s stronger than yours.” And hundreds of people clapped and swayed in unison.

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