A man puts a candle near a peace symbol made with flowers on place de la Republique in Paris on November 13, 2016 as France marked the first anniversary of the Paris attacks with sombre ceremonies and painful memories for the relatives of the 130 people k
Paris: In Paris on Sunday, the pain of the jihadist attacks that ripped through the city a year ago was still raw but, instead of anger, many people called for tolerance.
Under a light drizzle, people came together to remember the Friday night when gunmen and suicide bombers from the Islamic State group murdered 130 people as they enjoyed a night out.
The worst bloodshed took place at the Bataclan concert hall, a long-time fixture of the Paris nightlife scene.
Thierry, in his forties, was watching the Californian group The Eagles of Death Metal play when gunmen burst into the Bataclan. He managed to escape unscathed.
He admitted that attending Sunday's ceremony to unveil a plaque to the victims had been emotionally tough.
"Seeing the injured again, sometimes on crutches or in wheelchairs, took me back," said Thierry, who did not want to give his full name. "I am hoping I can now move on."
The carnage began at the Stade de France stadium where three suicide bombers detonated explosives vests, killing one man, Manuel Dias, and injuring several others.
Describing himself as an "orphan of terrorism", Dias' 31-year-old son Michael said in a speech at the unveiling of the plaque there that in his grief, he had looked to his Portuguese immigrant father's own story to find a way forward.
"We must strive to combat stigmatisation and division -- integration is the solution," Dias said.
"It's only by offering the same opportunities to everyone that we will manage to prevent feelings that some people have from being transformed into brutality towards all of us."
He ended his address with: "Long live tolerance, intelligence and long live France."
'Everyone is hurting'
The shock after the attacks deepened when it emerged that some of the attackers were young French men who had been trained by Islamic State in Syria.
A 28-year-old man, who wanted to be identified only as Olivier, was hit in the arm by a bullet outside the Carillon bar and the Petit Cambodge restaurant as the jihadists raked the cafe terraces with gunfire.
He was lucky, he survived, but one of his friends was killed.
He said Sunday was the last time he would attend a commemoration to the attacks. It was more important, he said, to try to understand "why there is such a division between young people in France".
"I don't think that work has been done yet," he told AFP.
At the Carillon bar, Bruno, 36, said the attacks had had a marked effect on life in the 11th arrondissement, the trendy area targeted by the gunmen.
"But in the bars I frequent, I have never heard anyone say idiotic things like equating Muslims with the terrorists," he said.
Brigitte, 69, knew one of the dead, barman Hyacinthe Koma, who had been celebrating a friend's birthday at La Belle Equipe bar when he was mown down.
"It's a date we'll never forget," she said. "Regardless of the colour of people's skin or their religion, everyone is hurting."
