Parisians ignore pleas by French authorities not to gather in public spaces, attending candlelight vigils and mourning victims of terror attacks
KARLA ADAM, EMILY BADGER AND STEVEN MUFSON, WASHINGTON POST
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 15 November, 2015, 12:13pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 15 November, 2015, 12:21pm
People light candles at a pop-up memorial near the "Belle Equipe" restaurant, the site of one of the attacks in Paris on November 14, 2015. Islamic State jihadists claimed a series of coordinated attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris that killed at least 128 people in scenes of carnage at a concert hall, restaurants and the national stadium. AFP PHOTO / LIONEL BONAVENTUR E
William Haddad wanted to do something in response to the terrorist mayhem that has engulfed his city, so he threw on a warm jacket and sought out a blood donation clinic.
Haddad, 29, a social-media manager, was one of about 100 Parisians in a long line of people outside Hospital Saint Louis on a crisp autumn afternoon wanting to give blood to people in need.
“I’ve been here for an hour,” Haddad said, shivering. “But I don’t care how long it takes. I have all the time in the world.”
As Paris began to recover Saturday from the country’s deadliest attack since World War II, many residents struggled with the meaning of the event, which struck one of the city’s most diverse and progressive neighborhoods. Residents who attended concerts at the Bataclan also frequented the restaurants and bars that were hit nearby, in a series of attacks that killed more than 120.
“That was the most horrifying thing about watching those numbers,” said Diarmid Hurrell, 37, a Scottish IT manager who has lived in Paris for 18 years and who often dined and drank at Le Carillon, a restaurant targeted by the terrorists. “You can’t shoot that many people in that area without shooting someone I know.”
One of the major gathering spots Saturday was outside Le Carillon, where people lit candles and took photos of the blood-soaked sidewalk and the fresh bullet holes left in a nearby wall. Hundreds of tea lights were left outside each of the restaurants, as were flowers wrapped in parchment paper bearing notes addressed to the dead. The Bataclan concert hall, the site of the bloodiest attack, was so heavily barricaded by police Saturday that mourners couldn’t approach it.
No sirens wailed as they had the night before. And the silence was notable, with normally bustling landmarks shuttered, including the iconic department store Galeries Lafayette and Disneyland Paris. The Eiffel Tower, which draws about 20,000 visitors a day and is one of the country’s most famous attractions, also went dark in what operators said was a “sign of mourning.”
“This is an attack on my way of life,” Hurrell said. “And it is a very peaceful and inclusive way of life.”
Despite the shock, many Parisians had feared something like this, because police had disrupted several earlier terrorist plots.
“All these things could have happened earlier,” said Daniel Poznan, a physician living in Paris who blamed France’s policies in the Middle East. He said people were already anxious because of earlier arrests. “It could happen again.”
Asked whether it would change the country’s way of life, he said, “Of course not. Wait a week and all will be the same.”
In one sign of the tense atmosphere, police were dispatched to an area around the Eiffel Tower late Saturday for what the French Interior Ministry later said was a false alarm.
French President François Hollande called for three days of national mourning, and authorities advised people to stay indoors. In a news conference, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said all public demonstrations would be banned until Thursday as a part of a national state of emergency.
But many Parisians, ignoring pleas by French authorities not to gather in public spaces, attended candlelight vigils.
“We aren’t allowed to be here because it’s a state of emergency - it is unbearable,” said Yves Legoff, a 69-year-old musician whose face was lit by hundreds of flickering candles at the Place de la Republique.
As he was talking, a police officer drove by with a megaphone, instructing the thick crowds to disperse because it was unsafe and France was in a state of emergency.
“I can’t not be here,” said Legoff, echoing what hundreds of other mourners gathered at the makeshift memorial presumably thought.
“It’s a symbol. You want to leave something,” said Hadrien Dagannaud, 27-year-old banker, after placing a red rose near the Bataclan. The area is known for its trendy, hipster vibe, but with the massive police presence, “it looks like war,” he said.
Outside La Belle Equipe, a restaurant a mile from the Bataclan where 19 people were killed, Halli and Edda Civelek hugged on the sidewalk for several long moments, their 4-month-old baby in a stroller beside them. They live half a block from the restaurant and were home Friday night when the shooting occurred.
They have eaten at this restaurant several times since moving to Paris from Iceland four months ago. Looking at the scene, Edda, 32, wondered whether the bikes still locked to the railing on the sidewalk were left behind by people who died here Friday night.
“Why is this place targeted?” asked Halli, 38. “The randomness of this is the most shocking thing, because it’s just like this neighborhood place. It’s not this Michelin-rated huge thing. It’s like so many other neighborhood places.”
The family heard what sounded like doors slamming about 9:30 Friday night - sounds that turned out to be gunshots just outside their home. They didn’t learn what had happened, though, until they began to get notes from family and friends.
“A lot of people in Iceland were telling us, ‘Come home,’ ” Edda said. “But I told them, ‘We are home. This is our home. And this is happening in our home.’ ”
http://m.scmp.com/news/world/article/1878987/mourners-paris-ignore-warnings-gather-sites-where-victims-fell
