Hundreds of Parisians gathered at the Place de la République in central Paris on Thursday evening, candles and flowers in hand, to honour the 132 people killed in the 13 November 2015 attacks — a decade after a night of terror that changed France forever.
Throughout the day, the city held a series of subdued ceremonies led by President Emmanuel Macron, joined by his wife Brigitte Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
Survivors, families, and former officials followed the president to each attack site — from the cafés and terraces of the 10th and 11th arrondissements to the Stade de France and the Bataclan concert hall.
At each stop, names were read aloud in hushed silence, a moment of collective remembrance for those who were lost.
The commemorations culminated in the inauguration of the 13 November Memory Garden near Paris City Hall.
As night fell, the Eiffel Tower lit up once again in blue, white and red — the colours of the French flag — while church bells, including those of Notre-Dame, rang across the capital.
Music played a central role in the evening ceremony. The faces of the 132 victims were projected onto the façade of the Saint-Gervais church, while their names were read out by unsung heroes of that evening, such as the policemen and the emergency workers who intervened on the night of the attacks.
Emmanuel Macron, Anne Hidalgo, and victims’ associations leaders Arthur Dénouveaux and Philippe Duperron all delivered speeches, followed by a minute of silence.
For many of those who lived through the attacks, the 10-year mark brings back the same images and the same questions — including for police officers who rushed into the Bataclan as the attack unfolded.
Michel Caboche, who was part of the BAC75 police unit that entered the Bataclan concert hall, recalls the moment the team pushed past the doors.
“There were still terrorists inside, we didn’t know where they were, we didn’t know how many there were, but we had to intervene… I pushed open the swinging door and was blinded by the stage lights. There was a smell of blood and gunpowder, and empty gun cartridges littered the floor… Bodies were tangled together… There were wounded people, and the groans and screams of those who were dying. It’s a scene you cannot forget,” he told Euronews.
He says the years since have done little to erase the weight of that night. “After ten years, I can tell you that time helps heal the wounds, but it doesn’t repair them… Were the decisions made at the time the right ones? Did they save lives?… That’s the feeling that stayed with me for a long time.”
He also described the moment a gravely injured woman grabbed his leg, begging him to help her — an image that still haunts him.
“She begged me to save her… and unfortunately, this woman did die during that night,” he said during the Bataclan commemoration ceremony on Thursday.
Lawyer Philippe de Veulle represents Laura Appoloni, who was shot inside the Bataclan before climbing onto the roof to escape.
He told Euronews that a bullet nearly severed her arm, forcing her to abandon her tattoo studio and begin a long battle to receive official recognition and support.
She now lives in Italy and returned to Paris for the first time since the attack — but still refuses to enter the concert hall.
For others, the anniversary offers continuity rather than closure. Cyril Beaudaux, who was in the concert hall with his wife and son, says each year brings the same mix of memories.
“We heard all the images and emotions coming back… Ten years is a significant number, of course, but every year it was the same thing,” he told Euronews.
He stresses that the trauma is not something one simply leaves behind. “I don’t know if you can say that we want to turn the page… It’s something that is part of us and therefore defines us.” His family hid for nearly four hours in a room above the Bataclan before police freed them.
Ten years on, the city still bears the scars of that night — in memories, in absence, and in the long road to recovery for survivors and responders.
But the crowds at Place de la République, the music at the evening ceremony, and the lights on the Eiffel Tower reflect another truth: that the spirit of Paris endures.
