French Memorials

Commemorative plaques and memorials to remember attacks

Memorials for terrorist attacks were relatively rare in the French urban landscape prior to 2015; just half a dozen plaques between 1974 and 2015. Plaques prior to 2015 covered large-scale attacks in particular:

• Synagogue on Rue Copernic, October 3, 1980, 4 dead and 46 wounded
• Goldenberg Restaurant, Rue des Rosiers, August 9, 1982, 6 dead and 22 wounded
• Rue de Rennes, September 17, 1986, 7 dead and 55 wounded
• RER Saint-Michel, July 25, 1995, 8 dead and 200 wounded
• RER Port-Royal, December 3, 1996, 4 dead and 91 wounded

The statue/fountain by the sculptor Nicolas Alquin, Parole portée à la mémoire des victimes du terrorisme, stands in the Jardin de l’Intendant on the grounds of the Hôtel national des Invalides. It was inaugurated on December 3, 1998, by President Jacques Chirac. Commemorative plaques for French victims of attacks abroad are arranged nearby.

Attacks in Toulouse and Montauban, March 11, 15, and 19, 2012

• A plaque and four trees in Jardin Edmond Michelet, as well as an alley named Monsonégo-Sandler
• A plaque, a memorial tree, Square Charles de Gaulle
• A sculpture, L'Arbre de vie, in the Ozar Hatorah school

2015 Attacks

• A memorial tree (Place de la République - Paris)

January 2015 Attacks

• Plaque on the Charlie-Hebdo building, Rue Nicolas Appert, Paris (11th arrondissement)
• Plaque for Ahmed Merabet, Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, Paris (11th arrondissement) (January 7, 2015)
• Plaque on the Hyper Cacher store, Paris (20th arrondissement) (January 8, 2015)
• Plaques for Clarissa Jean-Philippe, Malakoff and Montrouge (January 8, 2015)

November 13, 2015, Attacks

• Plaque at the Stade de France, Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis)
• Plaques near Paris businesses: Le Comptoir Voltaire, Paris (11th arrondissement), La Bonne Bière and Casa Nostra, Paris (11th arrondissement), La Belle Équipe, Paris (11th arrondissement), Le Petit Cambodge and Le Carillon, Paris (10th arrondissement), Bataclan memorial, Paris (11th arrondissement).
• Plaque at Château-Larcher (Vienne) inaugurated on November 11, 2017, on the monument to the dead in tribute to a victim of November 13th who was from the town.

July 14, 2016, Attack in Nice

• Memorial for the victims of the July 14th attack, located on the grounds of the Villa Masséna in Nice, Jardin de la Légion d’Honneur

October 1, 2017, Attack in Marseille

• Plaque in memory of Laura and Mauranne in the Gare Saint Charles

December 11, 2018, Strasbourg Attack

• Plaque in Place de la République in Strasbourg

Commémoration pour le 30e attentat de la rue Copernic, 3 octobre 2010, France 3 © Ina