A decade after the Bataclan attacks, France is still grappling with how to remember

Ludovic Marin / AFP via Getty Images

PARIS — Arthur Dénouveaux's memories of Nov. 13, 2015, aren't exactly hazy. Nor are they perfect.

"What I remember from that night are a few very clear pictures," he says.

Dénouveaux was one of around 1,500 people inside the Bataclan concert hall to see the American rock band Eagles of Death Metal, when gunmen linked to the Islamic State opened fire.

What he remembers next are fragments.

There was the muzzle flash coming out of the gunmen's Kalashnikovs. Being pushed to the floor as the crowd scrambled. A girl "completely lost," staring toward the shooters before others pulled her down.

Then Dénouveaux remembers crawling outside.

"Finding myself under the night sky in Paris," he says, "and saying to myself, 'Hey, I'm free again.'"

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