We Survived the Paris Attacks of 13 Novembre

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• published: 15 Nov 2015
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This is our personal account of the night of November 13th, 2015. Please pray for Paris and for everyone that has been effected by this tragedy. We documented this so friends and family can know how we were and what happened during the night. Five of the attacks were less than a mile away from where we were hiding. Tessa and I were spending the evening in Paris and went to L'International in the 11th arrondissement at 9:00 for a free psychedelic rock show. We went outside to get air at 9:50 and then went back inside to watch the second band perform. A few minutes into the second show, our Parisian friends started getting messages about shootings going on down the street from us. They were getting texts from people who were at the Eagles of Death Metal concert and one of the guys we were with was originally going to go to that show. We left the basement part of the venue where the bands were playing and went outside to get fresh air (again) and to better hear what was going on. At first I didn't think much of it, but then we heard it was at a similar concert venue just a 10 minute walk away (my first thought was why the heck are we outside then??). We weren't sure what to do and no clue that things were about to get much worse. This was when Tessa started to panic so we tried to figure out how to get home. We were closest to the Menilmontant station as well as very near Republique and didn't know if it would be safe to take. We tried to call an uber but they were all already off the road. Next, we tried taxis but the situation was the same. We were contemplating leaving but luckily a small group of guys next to us heard us talking and recommending waiting at the venue until things cooled down. We then went inside in a back corner just to be safe and within several minutes more reports came in and the restaurant went into lock down mode and shut the metal gates so no one could come in or see us from the outside. We realized we kind of went through three stages of emotions while waiting in the lock down. The first was essentially fear. I was shaking and (internally) freaking out while trying to not show it. Tessa said she was about to have a panic attack so I was doing everything I could to calm her down and down play the occurrences to make sure she felt safe. I tried so hard to control my voice and have a somewhat upbeat attitude to not make Tessa more worried but I could barely have coherent thoughts. After people were herded in and the metal gates were shut, we calmed down a bit and sat down against a wall where we felt safe. We went through a weird, somewhat calm feeling as we felt that we were safe for the time and could breathe easily but still with a pit feeling in our stomach. We were locked in for 3 hours and were continuing to only get updates from word of mouth. At first we heard there was a drive by shooting and that 18 people were dead down the street from us. Then 30 dead. Then 60 dead with 100 hostages. The number grew as the people around us at the bar shared the information they could. Some of our friends had left after hearing about the first shooting and we had no idea if they were dead or alive. We fortunately never heard gunshots as the place we were at kept an upbeat vibe to keep people from panicking. A girl that was borrowing my charger was the first to name Bataclan that was just around the street from us. Then someone else mentioned it and it just kept getting worse. After we heard the hostage crisis was over and that the gunmen had been shot, some people slowly left the restaurant through a back entrance. At around 2:30 am Tessa and I decided to leave the bar with a group of older guys and girls who had been very helpful to us through out the whole ordeal. Walking the streets was terrifying as we were warned of gunmen still on the loose. But after desperately searching for a taxi we finally found one and got a ride to our friends house in the 9th. We didn't go to sleep until 5:30 in the morning (if you can even consider it sleeping) and I've been wearing and slept in the same clothes for past 48 hours. I truly feel that everyone's prayers kept me and Tessa safe as we were quite literally in the middle of all the attacks. Our hearts have completely broken for this city and this nation. Thank you again to all the prayers and outpouring of love and support from friends and families. The amount of messages that flooded in through texting, Instagram, and Facebook was so overwhelming and gave Tessa and I a sense of peace as we waited for the worst to be over. It is amazing how much people are thinking and praying for this nation right now. I just encourage any and everyone to keep praying and doing what you can for Paris. If you are in the Paris region, please consider donating blood for the local hospitals. -Elena P.s. I apologize for the audio being spotty in parts, we didn't have a ton of time to edit it