Friday the 13th looked like a peaceful night to Samantha Kunkel, a Doylestown resident now living in Paris.
She joked that evening that because of the date, “something weird is going to happen, the crazy people are out.” But what was really on the loose was a wave of terror that would lead to at least 129 deaths.
Kunkel, 24, a University of Akron graduate who is working for the Teaching Assistant Program In France, was having a beer in a Parisian bar with a friend that night. She began receiving messages and calls from her older sister, Chelsea, another UA graduate working in France, who lives outside the city in Versailles.
Kunkel learned from her sister that people were being shot near her apartment, which is about a 10-minute walk from the Bataclan concert hall where the bulk of the shooting deaths occurred and 15 minutes from La Belle Equipe, another one of the attack locations.
“I reassured her that I was fine and not in the area,” Kunkel said by email. “I went back in and spoke with my friend who had also just become aware of the situation. We sat at the bar for a time talking about what was happening but not knowing much as there were no televisions in the bar.
“Suddenly, we saw people from the street rushing into the bar, some crying and yelling, pushing each other trying to get inside,” she said. The panic was “due to the police walking down the street with guns along with the confusion of where the next attack would take place.”
In the bar, she said, “we had no idea what was happening but before we knew it we had ducked under the bar to hide from whatever might be coming.
“The horrified looks of the people on the ground and the multiple girls crying really sent me into a moment of shock,” she recalled. “Someone close to the basement stairs ushered us that way and we all crawled to descend into a safer place. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to console some women who were hysterically crying and after a handful of us were huddled into a closet with no cell phone service, someone from the bar assured us that everything was OK and that we could come out.”
Leaving the city
She and her friend knew they had to get out of Paris.
“We both agreed that being in a populated bar in a well-known area of Paris was a bad decision,” she said. “We had no new information on how many attacks had happened at that point but had narrowed our choices down to staying in the bar or leaving and trying to get out of Paris. The man at the door of the bar notified us that if we left, we couldn’t come back in, so we left the bar in hopes of making the best decision.
“Taking the first step onto the street was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. No one knew what was around the corner or what to expect.”
Attempts to get a taxi did not work at first, since all the taxis going by were full, she said. They kept walking — traveling in the opposite direction from the police cars and ambulances to avoid going into the center of trouble — while trying to get an Uber.
“When the Uber finally arrived we raced into the car and headed to my friend’s apartment located in Montrouge, where my sister’s boyfriend was waiting to pick me up and take me to Versailles.”
Once she was safe, Kunkel broke down emotionally.
“I kept hearing the sirens in my head and thinking about the innocent people and how they could have been anyone, my neighbors, people that I pass on the streets every day or sit next to in the metro,” she said. “The news was on and the numbers of people hurt or deceased kept rising and my heart kept sinking. I experienced only a minute portion of what the others had but the effect has been immense.”
But she was determined to return to Paris.
“I can’t speak for everyone here … but I can say for myself that I am proud to be living in this city and I am grateful that I am here to support this country that I’ve fallen in love with. I returned to my apartment the Sunday after the attacks and saw the people of my neighborhood living life as normal, going to the store, walking their dogs, living.
“The attitude here in Paris is something powerful,” she said. “Everyone is so strong and the people are not afraid. I think there is a great possibility that this could divide the country and spread racism but from what I have seen and heard, the people here understand that this is not the fault of a certain race and that we cannot judge an entire population from the attacks made.”
Kunkel’s job contract ends in May, but she has “more desire than ever” to stay in France.
“I am not a French citizen, but I feel now that I am truly a part of this country and its people,” Kunkel said. “Vive la France.”
Rich Heldenfels is a reporter for the Beacon Journal. You can contact him at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.