Paris feels normal on the surface — but Parisians are jittery

Reporter Vivienne Walt says — on the surface — Paris feels normal again. She says businesses have re-opened and people are going out to restaurants and cafes.

“There is a movement around Paris for everybody to be eating out at street cafes,” Walt says.

But that’s all on the surface. Deep down, Parisians are yet to move on after the Friday attacks.

French Prime Minister François Hollande hasn’t been shy about warning residents of his country about the possibility of a future attack. In a speech, he said ISIS has the capacity to strike again. Not just in Paris but in Europe as a whole.

Hollande has also been calling the current crisis a war, which worries Walt.

“Hollande and the government have used the word war on at least two occasions since Friday,” Walt says. “Clearly they’re bracing the country for a long fight  — and a military fight.”

"At this point it feels very much to people like Europe is bang in the middle of the crosshairs of ISIS."

For Walt and many other Parisians, Friday was a turning point.

“Since then it’s become clear for people in the city […] that this is far from over and that there’s absolutely no guarantees that this won’t happen again. And this might even be a run up to something worse,” she says.

The thought that another attack might happen at any moment has kept people on edge.

“You see that the moment when there is a sudden noise,” she says. “A friend was telling me she was on a bus which back fired and there was a big, loud bang and everybody jumped three inches off their seats,” Walt says.

But people are vowing to carry on. For example the Paris climate change conference is planned to go ahead as scheduled.

Overall, Walt says, for residents of the city, there has been a lot to absorb and to think about. Residents of one of the most beautiful cities in the world are trying to heal and also figure out where their country goes from here.