Dozens Gather at Vigil to Honor Victims Of Paris Attacks

Dozens of French citizens and expatriates gathered outside the Consulat Général de France in Los Angeles Saturday evening, bringing with them flowers, signs and candles as they mourned for their native country and those lost in the Paris attacks that occurred a day earlier.   

“I would like to be in France next to my family and next to my friends, next to the people that matter to me,” said Alexis Renoir, a 20-year-old Parisian studying at Santa Monica College. “But, I can’t. I think that’s why everybody came here tonight, because we want to show our support to the person we love that are [sic] far away from us.”

A combination of suicide bombers and shootings resulted in the death of over 120 people, their victims’ circle of loved ones stretching even as far as to the City of Angels. The names Olivier, Maud, Gautier, and others appeared among the sea of prayers and remembrance, alongside phrases like “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” and “Je t’aime Paris.”

“Everybody’s scared,” said Justine Rabel, a student from Paris studying abroad in Los Angeles. “I know I’m supposed to come back for Christmas and my mom’s very, very scared about me going in a plane, landing in Paris, all that stuff.”

This is the second attack on the City of Love this year, the first committed by members of al-Qaida in January as a response to cartoons drawn by artists of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine. 

“We are proud to be French,” said Renoir. “That’s probably one of the reasons they attacked us: because we represent something. We’re the country of men’s rights.”

The Eiffel Tower, Le Louvre Museum and all other Parisian cultural treasures were closed today in the wake of terror, but the city still plans to hold the highly anticipated 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, beginning on November 30.