Before that night in November 2015, I had never heard of the Bataclan nor will the Eagles of Death Metal. I‘m not the type to metalhead concert. Yet both are now part of my story. This, gentlemen, is life!
It was born as an art, fun and romance weekend, with my boyfriend and some couples. Paris, what else? So we spent the day between La Gare d’Orse and the Louvre. In the evening we opted for a dinner in a small bistro, one stop metro from Place de la République. The Bataclan was near by, as well as our hotel.
Dinner started singing la Vie en Rose, sipping wine while outside there were the fireworks. How wonderful, even the fireworks in a normal night, we thought. Then suddenly all the doors and windows were locked and we wondered what was happening. Nobody could remotely imagine what was going on. The restaurant managers, for a while ‘they tried to pretend nothing has happened. So I switched Periscope. In the foreground, there was a man hiding behind a car, just in Place de La Republic.
In the Bataclan, a few kilometers from us, someone was shooting and people screaming.
Please, stay calm, we were informed that Paris is under terrorist attack: it is best that no man go out on the street now, especially in this area. The owners of the restaurant were bruises on his face and the atmosphere in an instant became heavy. The panic and fear began to spread among us. Smartphone talking about urban warfare. No news still had fresh news because everything was still going on at the time.
TERRORISTS SHOOTS IN THE STREETS. THEY KILLED CUSTOMERS IN A RESTAURANT IN PLACE DE LA REPUBLIQUE. NOW THEY ARE INTO THE BATACLAN: KILLING THE GUYS THAT WERE THERE TO SEE THE CONCERT
At that point, in a panic, we decided to leave the restaurant and go back to the hotel. And here, it happened the thing that I never thought could happen in a situation like this: my boyfriend and I, we parted. We have had not even the time to say goodbye, it was a snap. He and his friends took the subway. Me, along with the other women in the group, we hop on a taxi, the only one that, thank God, we were able to find.
I feared for my boyfriend and his friends, thinking that the subway could have become a mousetrap, during a terrorist attack. The trip by taxi, even though it was a few kilometers, lasted about an hour. The taxi driver told us he had just accompanied a woman to the hospital with a bullet in the leg, he was out self.
Then at the end, we arrived at the hotel. We were scared but happy to be safe and We started to look at the TV to better understand what was happening.
And it was at that moment that, taken by an irresistible impulse (and despite my boyfriend tried to dissuade me), I took my Iphone and went on my way to Place de la République.
The cars that passed close to us (in the meantime had reached me my boyfriend), asking us if we needed help. I just wanted to reach the white and blue lights of the police and ambulances that were massing near the Bataclan.
AT THAT POINT, I went live on PERISCOPE AND A huge amount OF PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, HAS COME TO SEE THAT TERRIBLE night THROUGH MY EYES.
it was a long night of fear. And I have been contact by mail, always thanks to Periscope, from different English-speaking newspapers who wanted to buy the rights to my broadcasts.
The next day we were walking for Paris as zombie. Incredulous, we were trying to make sense to those innocent dead and we knew there were two more terrorists, one was a she, on the loose.
One year after those dramatic events, I see clearly the lesson that I was taught. I was a lucky witness, close enough to see clearly what was going on, but far enough away not to be physically injured or worse, killed.
THE NIGHT OF BATACLAN AND TERRORIST ATTACKS HAS BEEN MY PERSONAL TURNING POINT TOWARDS THE USE OF LIVE STREAMING.
That night, I realized the enormous potential that the live video offer, to those who want to document what happens. Just a phone, data, and if the event is worldwide as the Paris attacks, do not even need to have a large community of followers.
If the Citizen journalism is one of the new frontiers of journalism, direct streaming are certainly one of the most effective, if not the most effective we have available.
In a world where now, the war is fought with methods, weapons and other instruments from the past: as bombings against civilians taken aback.
