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La Bonne Bière, Cafe Hit in Paris Attacks, Is Back in Business | La Bonne Bière, Cafe Hit in Paris Attacks, Is Back in Business |
(about 3 hours later) | |
PARIS — Jacqueline Bouley used to go regularly to La Bonne Bière, a sprawling cafe in Paris’s 10th Arrondissement, to linger over a drink on the long terrace. Her routine came to an abrupt halt after the night of Nov. 13, when Islamic State gunmen drove up and massacred five people in a hail of gunfire before continuing their deadly assault around town. | |
On Friday, La Bonne Bière became the first of six cafes and restaurants hit during the rampage to reopen its doors. Mrs. Bouley, who lives around the corner, hurried down to get a seat at one of the small tables. | On Friday, La Bonne Bière became the first of six cafes and restaurants hit during the rampage to reopen its doors. Mrs. Bouley, who lives around the corner, hurried down to get a seat at one of the small tables. |
“It’s important to be back here,” she said over a tall glass of beer. “It’s been sad in the neighborhood, and the memories are still raw. But we’re not going to be afraid. We must live our lives.” | |
Three weeks to the day after militants unleashed synchronized attacks in the heart of Paris, killing 130 and wounding 400 more, La Bonne Bière quickly became a rendezvous point for hundreds of Parisians and people from around France to gather, measure their grief and seek to move past it by raising a glass in a symbolic gesture of defiance. | |
As daylight washed over the city, the manager, Audrey Bily, opened the doors to a waiting crowd. Gone were the bullet-pocked windows. Fresh paint brightened the ceiling. Above a new orange awning, a white banner fluttered lightly in the breeze and proclaimed what has become the new rallying cry of many Parisians — “Je suis en terrace” — I’m out on the terrace. | |
“It’s time to bounce back and get going again,” Ms. Bily said, addressing the crowd and a phalanx of cameras in a determined voice. “We are moving past the stigma of this nightmare.” | “It’s time to bounce back and get going again,” Ms. Bily said, addressing the crowd and a phalanx of cameras in a determined voice. “We are moving past the stigma of this nightmare.” |
Other cafes caught up in the assaults are expected to reopen in coming weeks, including the nearby Le Comptoir Voltaire and La Belle Équipe, where 20 more people were killed. At Le Carillon and Le Petit Cambodge, just up the street from La Bonne Bière, huge piles of flowers to victims have been pushed back, and locals hope for a reopening soon. | |
The Bataclan concert hall, where 92 people were killed, is unlikely to open before the end of next year, its owners have said. | |
Nicole Marot, a retiree, crossed Paris on the Métro to get to La Bonne Bière. Under a sunny sky, she spread a newspaper before her as she sipped an espresso. She did not know any of the victims. “I felt I had to pay homage to all those people who died for nothing,” she said. | |
Mrs. Marot glanced at the Rue du Faubourg-du-Temple, a cobbled street at a wide intersection that was easy for the assailants to navigate. “The fact that this happened after the killings at Charlie Hebdo means that an attack could happen again,” she said. “But we cannot let a fear of terrorists stop us from living.” Those attacks in January at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper, the Hyper Cacher supermarket and in a Paris suburb, left 17 dead. | |
People continued to lay flowers at a makeshift shrine in front of the cafe, which was adorned with peace signs and messages of support from around the world. | People continued to lay flowers at a makeshift shrine in front of the cafe, which was adorned with peace signs and messages of support from around the world. |
Michel Goulaux brought his grandson, Sasha Kasparian, 11, to Paris from their home in Bouges-le-Château, in the Loire Valley, when they heard La Bonne Bière would reopen. “We’re not Parisian, but this hit all of France,” Mr. Goulaux said. “I wanted to show my grandson that we can resist.” | |
Placing a candle at the shrine, Sasha said he had been watching the Nov. 13 soccer match at the Stade de France on television when they heard explosions from what was later identified as an attack by suicide bombers. | |
“I was shocked,” he said. “Then we learned that 130 people in all died. I wanted to pay tribute, especially to the young.” | “I was shocked,” he said. “Then we learned that 130 people in all died. I wanted to pay tribute, especially to the young.” |
Just 20 feet away, the Casa Nostra Pizzeria, where one person was killed as the terrorists moved on from La Bonne Bière, remained closed, with three large bullet holes from Kalashnikov rifles pocking a window. | |
Mohamed Mokhtari, the owner of La Fontaine Fleurie, a flower shop between the two sites, said he nearly missed being caught up in the assault when he turned down an invitation from a colleague to have a drink on the pizzeria’s terrace. Fifteen minutes after he shut his shop, the terrorists came barreling to his corner. | |
He smiled as he looked to his right, where La Bonne Bière was bustling anew. “Things were just too sad,” he said. “It’s magnificent that they reopened — it’s already breathing new life” into the neighborhood. | |
Then, Mr. Mokhtari cast a sidelong glance at the Casa Nostra, where the broken glass and ghostly silence exuded gloom as people bought roses from his shop to add to the shrine there. | |
“I feel like I’m living between two worlds,” he said. “On my left, at the pizzeria, it’s still a monument to the dead. On the right, at the cafe, we have the living, and life going on again.” | |
He paused and craned his neck toward La Bonne Bière. “Life must go on again,” he said. “It’s the only way.” | He paused and craned his neck toward La Bonne Bière. “Life must go on again,” he said. “It’s the only way.” |
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