La Bonne Bière, the cafe where five people were killed by ISIS militants, has reopened three weeks after the Paris attacks occurred. People were sitting at the terraces of La Bonne Bière and the Cosa Nostra restaurant across the street that fateful Nov.13 evening when militants approached both locales and sprayed the area with bullets, eventually becoming part of what is considered one of France's worst terrorist attacks since World War II.
Since the attacks, like many other Paris locales that were hit by militants, the shuttered cafe had been piled high with flowers in memory of those who were lost, according to the Times of India. Some praised the decision.
"It's time they open and that we continue life as it was before," neighboring shopkeeper Paule Zlotnik said.
While others had a mixed feelings about it. "It's a good thing that it's opening up again, but there will still be an awful lot of memories here," local resident Valentine said.
"There's a wound here that can't be healed," said Aliette, another local.
In surveillance video taken from the scene, two gunmen in black can be seen approaching the La Bonne Bière and opening fire on unsuspecting customers. One woman's life was apparently saved during the incident when the attacker's gun either jammed or he had second thoughts, according to France 24.
In the meantime, Europe has taken deliberate steps to ensure that incidents like that don't happen again, with the most recent effort occuring in Brussels on Friday, when European Union interior ministers met in hopes of closing a deal on sharing airline passenger information.
France says this is vital for keeping track of extremists and Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister Étienne Schneider mirrored that sentiment, while emphasizing the need to close the deal saying, "If we don't get agreement today, it will be extremely difficult to get any agreement at all."
If reached, information gathered by airlines such as the names, travel dates, itinerary, credit card information and contact details of all its passengers could be accessed by EU law-enforcement agencies, according to CBC.
The biggest challenge experts faced when coming up with the deal was identifying the differences between security concerns and privacy rights. Despite coming to an agreement on that matter, they couldn't agree on whether to store traveller information for France's demand of nine months, or a six month alternative.
