January 7, 2015, is a day French people will remember – a day this French girl will always remember.

It has been called the “French September 11th”. On this day, France was attacked. At 11:30 a.m., the newspaper headquarters of Charlie Hebdo was the victim of a terrorist attack.

Going back in history, this newspaper is popular for satiric cartoons. It started in 1970, mocking the French President Charles de Gaulle.

And since then, cartoonists have been mocking mostly politicians and religions, including several cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in recent years.

Two extremist Islamists, who apparently do not have any sense of humor, attacked the newspaper on Jan. 7 and 12 people were killed including famous cartoonists.

The two gunmen ran away, leaving their car in the street of Paris. For the first time in the history of France, a large amount of police officers were blocking every vehicle at the border of Paris to track down the terrorists.

The entire population of France was shocked. On social media, several gatherings around France were rapidly planned. Parisians went to drop flowers and candles at Charlie Hebdo.

The hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, which means I am Charlie, was the worldwide top tweet on Twitter. And I cannot count how many of my Facebook and Twitter friends have changed their profile picture to a black image and the white inscription “JE SUIS CHARLIE”, including news stations and famous French persons.

On television, the black image and a black banner were present on each channel and most of French channels have changed their programs to discuss about the event.

My sister and I lit a couple of candles by our window and we were far from being the only ones in the neighborhood.

During the several gatherings in France, people were mostly silent.

They sang the “Marseillaise”, the national anthem, and raised their crayons and pens to the sky.

Others cartoonists have drawn something to express their feeling to the attack.  However, the event wasn’t over. On Thursday, the two gunmen were still missing. Police were everywhere. I live in the suburbs of Paris and military persons were patrolling in train stations.

The police were looking for any clue about where the terrorist might be. They could have been anywhere.

At 8 a.m., at MontRouge, a town at the border of Paris where my mother works, another shooting occurred. A 27-year-old police woman was killed while managing traffic. It was said later the three gunmen knew each other and the shooting was a way to “distract” the police from the track of terrorists.

On Friday, the two gunmen were found in a print store an hour north of Paris. They had taken the employees hostage.

Most of the subways’ stations were closed and trains did not run as usual. It was a very stressful day for everyone. We didn’t know how it was going to end. At 5 p.m. orders were given and the three terrorists were finally killed by French Squad (GIGN) and it was a relief for everybody.

However, we are still very touched by the event and we are certainly not sure it won’t happen again.

This was the most deadly attack in France for over 50 years. People lost their lives but they were not the sole target – freedom of speech was also attacked.

As the 11th article of the Declaration of Right of Man and of the Citizen presumes, “Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom.” This was written after the French Revolution in 1789. This article was defied.

The French population was united during this event and it was reminded to not cower in fear of terrorists.

My friend who lives in Paris, Amandine Delahaye, told me her point of view. She said, “We were all watching the news feed. Working was really hard and productivity really low for everyone. I do not read Charlie Hebdo, I even usually disagree their recurrent religious (or misogynistic) cartoons. But, I felt sad because life is life. It’s sacred.”
Amandine attended a march on Jan. 11 with over four million other people.

This was a devastating event for France and I think we understand more how America must have felt on September 11, 2001.

“There were less deaths than Sept. 11,” said my aunt, Corinne Durand, “but the effect was the same – the same sadness in this world of crazy people…I felt like (I was) in a movie.”