Just thought I'd share my experiences in Paris last week. We were supposed to be in Paris from Nov 8 - 15, then spend two days at DLP. Bummed that we missed being able to see DLP, but Paris is the most beautiful, amazing place I've ever been. I would tell EVERYONE to go there whenever you can.
Ok, so here was my Friday night. This is probably too long, but whatever. I'd estimate we missed the closest shooting by 5-10 minutes.
My wife and I were making a few different stops in the city -- we did a walk down Rue Cler and picked up a few things to bring home. We had a glass of wine and then went to the St. Germain area to go to Pierre Hermes (a chocolatier) and then find a place for dinner. On the metro, we were standing next to 3 guys wearing German National Team jerseys and I remember thinking "**** if I had known there would be a game while we were here, I would have tried to get tickets. I can't believe I didn't look it up." We made it to St. Germain, got chocolate and found this place Semilla for dinner. (Which was fabulous, for the record.)
After dinner, we were both tired and it was about 9:45 at night, so we decided to head back to our hotel. At this point, let me explain where we were staying. We were at a hotel (which we loved) called Le Mareuil, which was about a block away from Place de Republique. The Republique neighborhood is at the northern end of Marais, and is home to a ton of bars and restaurants -- its full of life and younger people. The square, which is where all the TV networks are set up and where the memorial has been set up is right above the Republique metro station, which is a junction of a 4 or 5 lines, so it was our starting and ending point every single day we were in Paris.
The square was also home to a small, sort-of-makeshift refugee camp. There were two big sections -- there was this area with a giant collection of mattresses -- I'd guess like 30' by 30' or so where a bunch of people were sleeping and then another section of tarped tents that also had some banners above them. We weren't sure at first whether it was actually refugees or people who were camped out in support of refugees. But it was mostly a happy setting, and a lot of times the refugees were dancing or playing soccer or even playing cricket at one point. Many seemed to be studying. The one odd thing was that it was ALL men. I don't think I saw any women. This video was taken while we were there -- its hard to see, but it shows the vibe of things.
So we never felt particularly threatened, we did tend to walk to a side exit from the metro at night to avoid the groups because the square wasn't lit well and I just felt like we'd be a bit more anonymous walking across the street. Just sorta the stuff you do as an American when overseas.
So back to Friday night. We took a different line than normal to get home from St. Germain. Because of that we weren't close to our normal side entrance. If you've never been, the Paris metro stations can be sprawling, especially compare to DC. The stations that have multiple lines can require a 5 or 10 minute walk with multiple sets of stairs to switch lines. So we had walked a bit and ended up at the main entrance. I looked at my wife and said, "whatever, let's just take this one, I'm sure it will be fine."
As soon as walked out, we hear a siren. Immediately, three police cars flew up to the square. Right away, I noticed that the tented portion of the refugee camp was GONE. Like, no sign it ever existed. The giant bed area was still there. I look around and see there are a bunch of other cops sitting there. My wife and I had sort of paused to take in what was happening. And then 2 or 3 more police cars come flying up. So clearly, we know something is going on. We are talking and walking and decided that we were betting that the refugee camp had been busted.
While we are walking to the edge of the square, I see a couple cops running and then tackling someone along the path we normally take. Again, I assumed it was a refugee thing. As we cross the street, I notice that the cops are putting up tape to keep people away from the path we normally take. At this point, I start to think that something bigger is going on. We also start to notice the faces of people along the street. Its Friday night and crowded, but we start to realize people are nervous and almost spooked.
We pick up the pace and as we walk down the street away from the square, we pass a really happening bar that is hosting game watch for the FR/GER game. Its PACKED inside, but as we are walking by, two guys come running out and they grab their stuff off an outdoor table and then run back in the bar. And immediately, they shut the big metal doors that all the Paris stores use when they close at night.
Now, we are like, what the heck. We hustle the rest of the way to our hotel -- my wife's knee was bothering her, so we didn't run, but close. We get inside and two other hotel guests are in the lobby freaking out. We ask what is going on and they say, there was just a shooting in the square with an AK-47 and there was a bombing at the soccer stadium. I'm thinking -- wait a second, the soccer game was still going, there wasn't a bombing. ***?
While the hotel staff got a bag of ice for my wife's knee, we start to realize something larger is happening. We immediately get upstairs, lock the door and throw on CNN. Within a minute or two, the texts and tweets and FB posts start rolling in asking if we are okay. My wife is really anxious and because of her job, she is immediately in contact with the Embassy and other US officials. It seemed like the shooters were on the loose in the neighborhood, so it was a terrifying feeling. We had the blinds shut and most of the lights off in the room.
Basically, we watched the rest of night unfold the way you guys did. With one exception: After we had been in the hotel room for about 90 minutes or so and it was clear that this was a terrorist attack, the fire alarm in the hotel goes off. I had been pretty calm to that point, but now I was freaked out. I’m thinking that we were in the safest spot we could be in that room, and now we were supposed to leave? No way. It sounds crazy with a logical mind in hindsight, but at the time, I was legit freaking out that it was a ploy to get people out of the hotel to execute them, just like we were seeing rumors of the executions at the concert hall. So we opened our window and hung outside and talked to some other English speaking guests leaning out the window about what to do. We tried calling the front desk and it was busy. Eventually, a group of English speakers were walking down the street (with no idea what was going down in Paris) and we had them walk up to the lobby and check on what to do. It ended up that someone got so nervous they smoked in their room and it set off the alarm.
I tried sleeping a bit, but my wife was wide awake all night, texting and Facebook chatting with friends and relatives. We got up early and decided to go to the airport and try to move up our flight. We had learned other people had been able to do this, so we went for it. We ended up getting on a flight and getting home.
The other interesting thing was the reaction of the Parisians on Saturday morning. The government had advised everyone to stay inside, so I was expecting Paris to look like DC did after 9/11. It was nothing like that. People were out doing their business all over. Not as crowded as the previous weekend had been, but people were not scared to be out. Or at least not letting their fear keep them from being out.
Ok, so here was my Friday night. This is probably too long, but whatever. I'd estimate we missed the closest shooting by 5-10 minutes.
My wife and I were making a few different stops in the city -- we did a walk down Rue Cler and picked up a few things to bring home. We had a glass of wine and then went to the St. Germain area to go to Pierre Hermes (a chocolatier) and then find a place for dinner. On the metro, we were standing next to 3 guys wearing German National Team jerseys and I remember thinking "**** if I had known there would be a game while we were here, I would have tried to get tickets. I can't believe I didn't look it up." We made it to St. Germain, got chocolate and found this place Semilla for dinner. (Which was fabulous, for the record.)
After dinner, we were both tired and it was about 9:45 at night, so we decided to head back to our hotel. At this point, let me explain where we were staying. We were at a hotel (which we loved) called Le Mareuil, which was about a block away from Place de Republique. The Republique neighborhood is at the northern end of Marais, and is home to a ton of bars and restaurants -- its full of life and younger people. The square, which is where all the TV networks are set up and where the memorial has been set up is right above the Republique metro station, which is a junction of a 4 or 5 lines, so it was our starting and ending point every single day we were in Paris.
The square was also home to a small, sort-of-makeshift refugee camp. There were two big sections -- there was this area with a giant collection of mattresses -- I'd guess like 30' by 30' or so where a bunch of people were sleeping and then another section of tarped tents that also had some banners above them. We weren't sure at first whether it was actually refugees or people who were camped out in support of refugees. But it was mostly a happy setting, and a lot of times the refugees were dancing or playing soccer or even playing cricket at one point. Many seemed to be studying. The one odd thing was that it was ALL men. I don't think I saw any women. This video was taken while we were there -- its hard to see, but it shows the vibe of things.
So we never felt particularly threatened, we did tend to walk to a side exit from the metro at night to avoid the groups because the square wasn't lit well and I just felt like we'd be a bit more anonymous walking across the street. Just sorta the stuff you do as an American when overseas.
So back to Friday night. We took a different line than normal to get home from St. Germain. Because of that we weren't close to our normal side entrance. If you've never been, the Paris metro stations can be sprawling, especially compare to DC. The stations that have multiple lines can require a 5 or 10 minute walk with multiple sets of stairs to switch lines. So we had walked a bit and ended up at the main entrance. I looked at my wife and said, "whatever, let's just take this one, I'm sure it will be fine."
As soon as walked out, we hear a siren. Immediately, three police cars flew up to the square. Right away, I noticed that the tented portion of the refugee camp was GONE. Like, no sign it ever existed. The giant bed area was still there. I look around and see there are a bunch of other cops sitting there. My wife and I had sort of paused to take in what was happening. And then 2 or 3 more police cars come flying up. So clearly, we know something is going on. We are talking and walking and decided that we were betting that the refugee camp had been busted.
While we are walking to the edge of the square, I see a couple cops running and then tackling someone along the path we normally take. Again, I assumed it was a refugee thing. As we cross the street, I notice that the cops are putting up tape to keep people away from the path we normally take. At this point, I start to think that something bigger is going on. We also start to notice the faces of people along the street. Its Friday night and crowded, but we start to realize people are nervous and almost spooked.
We pick up the pace and as we walk down the street away from the square, we pass a really happening bar that is hosting game watch for the FR/GER game. Its PACKED inside, but as we are walking by, two guys come running out and they grab their stuff off an outdoor table and then run back in the bar. And immediately, they shut the big metal doors that all the Paris stores use when they close at night.
Now, we are like, what the heck. We hustle the rest of the way to our hotel -- my wife's knee was bothering her, so we didn't run, but close. We get inside and two other hotel guests are in the lobby freaking out. We ask what is going on and they say, there was just a shooting in the square with an AK-47 and there was a bombing at the soccer stadium. I'm thinking -- wait a second, the soccer game was still going, there wasn't a bombing. ***?
While the hotel staff got a bag of ice for my wife's knee, we start to realize something larger is happening. We immediately get upstairs, lock the door and throw on CNN. Within a minute or two, the texts and tweets and FB posts start rolling in asking if we are okay. My wife is really anxious and because of her job, she is immediately in contact with the Embassy and other US officials. It seemed like the shooters were on the loose in the neighborhood, so it was a terrifying feeling. We had the blinds shut and most of the lights off in the room.
Basically, we watched the rest of night unfold the way you guys did. With one exception: After we had been in the hotel room for about 90 minutes or so and it was clear that this was a terrorist attack, the fire alarm in the hotel goes off. I had been pretty calm to that point, but now I was freaked out. I’m thinking that we were in the safest spot we could be in that room, and now we were supposed to leave? No way. It sounds crazy with a logical mind in hindsight, but at the time, I was legit freaking out that it was a ploy to get people out of the hotel to execute them, just like we were seeing rumors of the executions at the concert hall. So we opened our window and hung outside and talked to some other English speaking guests leaning out the window about what to do. We tried calling the front desk and it was busy. Eventually, a group of English speakers were walking down the street (with no idea what was going down in Paris) and we had them walk up to the lobby and check on what to do. It ended up that someone got so nervous they smoked in their room and it set off the alarm.
I tried sleeping a bit, but my wife was wide awake all night, texting and Facebook chatting with friends and relatives. We got up early and decided to go to the airport and try to move up our flight. We had learned other people had been able to do this, so we went for it. We ended up getting on a flight and getting home.
The other interesting thing was the reaction of the Parisians on Saturday morning. The government had advised everyone to stay inside, so I was expecting Paris to look like DC did after 9/11. It was nothing like that. People were out doing their business all over. Not as crowded as the previous weekend had been, but people were not scared to be out. Or at least not letting their fear keep them from being out.
