Stunned Paris struggles to carry on

French capital keeps a quiet calm amid shock

The City of Light

PARIS seemed a little less bright Saturday as Parisians awoke to the shock of war — then appeared to quietly keep calm and carry on.

Hours after brazen, multiple terrorist attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers that killed at least 129 people here, this normally bustling European city known for its world- class museums, markets, sidewalk cafes and the good life was stunned into a church- like silence. This city, usually so audible with cars, motorbikes and bicycles, was eerily still. Universities, cinemas, major meeting places all closed.

In the small back streets that dot the immediate area around the Bataclan music club, where at least 89 people were murdered, people seemed to go about their normal weekend business: shopping, meeting friends, taking in the brisk autumn air. But many heads were conspicuously staring into their smartphones, perhaps to catch up on the latest news about the worst attacks Paris has witnessed since World War II.

Adding to the apprehensive atmosphere was French President Francois Hollande’s warning that the bloody assaults, claimed by the Islamic State, amounted to an “act of war” in which France would “show no mercy.” It raised the question: What comes next?

Many Parisians spent the day in long lines to donate blood for the more than 350 wounded in the attacks. If you don’t know what to do or how to help, well, at least give blood, several donors explained.

There also was a sense that if ever there was a time for coming together, this was it — to rekindle some of the defiant solidarity that surfaced in the wake of the terrorist attacks here last January that claimed 17 lives. In the aftermath of the Jan. 7- 9 massacre at the satirical magazine Charlie

Hebdo and a Kosher market, marchers paraded not only in Paris, but in London, Madrid, Istanbul and other major cities to deliver a powerful message to terrorists: We won’t be intimidated by your senseless brutality.

Thomas Reinier, 22, a passerby when the massacre at the concert erupted, spent hours Saturday shivering in a thin, long sleeve shirt on the edge of a cordoned off area adjacent to the music venue. “It might be a little selfish, I know, but I need to be out here telling people what I saw and how it made me feel. The French people don’t want to be cowed by these attacks, but we are afraid,” said Reinier, an apprentice metals worker. He was in a car with friends when they heard gunfire immediately behind them.

Pascal De Meyrac, 54, an entrepreneur in Paris on business, said he was particularly troubled by the fact the killers apparently chose to target places where young people were enjoying themselves. “They are pouring oil on the fire,” he said, referring to the assailants and what impact this event may have on Europe’s role in the conflicts in the Middle East.

There was a sense that if ever there was a time for coming together, this was it.