A devastating weekend in Paris

On Friday I had a very early start to catch a train to Paris for a weekend visiting friends and sight-seeing. My friend Ollie is studying at the Sorbonne this year and he was my tour guide for the day. We had a walk around the city and took classic tourist shots at Notre Dame and the Musée du Louvre. After meeting up with my friend Frances in her lunch break, Ollie and I continued our tour with a visit to the Pompidou Centre and a coffee at a chic café in the heart of the city. It's incredible that Parisians have so much priceless art and culture on their doorsteps at countless museums and galleries that are usually free entry for students.

That evening, I went to meet Frances for dinner after she had finished work in the 10th arrondissement. We found a trendy little restaurant with an impressive menu where we spent the evening catching up and I was still buzzing with excitement to be in one of my favourite cities in the world. We took the métro to her apartment in the 13th, blissfully unaware of the horrendous events about to take place a couple of neighbourhoods along. The moment we reached her apartment our phones connected to wifi and flooded with streams of messages and news alerts. It wasn't long before we heard about the terrorist attacks nearby and the emergency sirens rang constantly from the streets outside.

We were overwhelmed by the messages from worried friends and family who knew we were out in the city that night. The bars and restaurants attacked in the 10th and 11th are hip areas of Paris, frequented by yo-pros and always full of people on a Friday night. In fact, we'd originally planned to go for drinks there the following evening. Another friend of mine had gone to dinner there when visiting the weekend before. It was all way too close to home. 

We were lucky. Others, however - innocent young people out celebrating the end of the week, socialising with friends over drinks, watching a friendly game of football, seeing their favourite band perform live - were not.

The following day we cancelled all our plans we'd made for the weekend. We followed precautions to stay inside on Saturday morning then after checking the news for final updates we decided to venture out that afternoon. There was certainly a sad atmosphere across the city. We passed a busy hospital surrounded by soldiers and police cars. Media crews were outside every monument we passed. Yet it is important to remember that life must continue, we cannot be forced to stay inside living in fear.

The world's reaction has been amazing, as countries have united in solidarity with Paris. Cities from Sydney and Kuala Lumpur to San Francisco and London lit up their monuments in the tricolour, lighting up for Paris as the iconic Eiffel Tower stayed dark.

Flag at half-mast at the Louvre

These horrific events have not put me off this incredible place. Paris remains a beautiful city that I will certainly be returning to.

My thoughts are with everyone affected by all the tragic acts of terror that have taken place in several countries these last few days.