November 13: Attack on Paris

The events in Paris were just news stories to me, incomprehensible really, as I didn't know the places they happened, and news channels whilst no doubt they would have binged on an event like this, they move on so quickly to the next awful thing that there is no emotional impact and never a sense of the lives ruined and altered permanently.

In this three parter, there was no rushed moving on, and no "cat on a skateboard" at the end, before the weather a la TV news. Instead, there were everyday people who saw things that no one should see, and professionals who dealt with cascading crises such that they could never have expected, all described this terrible night with calm, grace and great humility.

The depth of emotion, the lyrical and insightful ways in which some of the survivors describe their experience really struck me, for example Valerie in Ep3 when she reflects on whether or not she would agree to having the memories removed from her consciousness, if this were possible. She said no, her reasons for saying no demonstrate to me why these people, and Paris operate in a different universe to the mindless killers that tried to take it from them.