Coping with the Paris attacks

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As Parisians try to get back into a normal routine, French citizens living abroad are also struggling to make sense of Friday’s horrific attack. Melissa Raftis spoke with two French students on exchange at Brock University about how they are coping.

“It was very scary and first thing I messaged my family, my parents and my brother.” said Brock University exchange student Clemence Garrec.

Garrec knows Paris’ 11th district well. She lived there for 6 months. “It’s very young. It’s very diverse.” Garrec learned of the attacks from one of her friends who was going to DJ in a club that night. She spent the evening glued to the news and social media.

“I was shocked at the scale of the event. I was more shocked than the terrorist attack in January.” said Fanny Lhardy.

Fanny Lhardy grew up in the Paris suburbs, she’s also on exchange at Brock. While the targeted January attack on Charlie Hebdo was terrifying, she says this is different. “Now it’s just the daily life of young people that was touched. People like me basically.”

Assistant political science Professor Blayne Haggart says while the strikes against citizens are horrific, they are a sign that ISIS is weak. “They’re basically isolated targets, soft targets. This isn’t the kind of thing you do if you want to take on a country and you’re serious about beating a country. France is not going to fall to ISIS.”

Haggart says terrorist attacks are what groups do when they have no other cards to play. Still, it’s little comfort for Lhardy, who worries about her peace of mind when she returns to Paris.

“I was wondering if I could ever enjoy having a drink in Paris again or just going to a soccer match.”

Garrec and Lhardy say their families and friends are safe following the attack. Both point to Facebook’s safety check feature for helping them to quickly find out if their loved ones overseas were okay after the violence broke out.