Parisians gather in churches and plazas after attacks

(The Christian Science Monitor) The Eiffel Tower stood dark Saturday night, an expression of the stunned response across Paris after one of the worst terrorist attacks in European history, which left at least 129 dead and 352 wounded. But as sunshine embraced the city Sunday, Parisians arose to channel their anger, fear, grief, and determination.

Streets that were empty yesterday were filled as residents searched for a sense of community, packing into churches that are normally empty, lighting candles at the sites of the attacks, and amassing in public plazas even though a state of emergency forbid it.

It has been less than a year since extremists attacked the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in Paris. Yet on the first Sunday after that attack, Parisians knew where to go. They joined more than a million people at Place de la Republique who marched, along with 40 heads of state, down the main boulevards of central Paris.