President Francois Hollande has vowed France will respond to the “army of fanatics” who carried out the Paris attacks, as the nation paused to pay homage to the victims.

He said the country will respond with more songs, concerts and shows.

• Why we should terror proof our energy grids
• Eiffel Tower reopens in spectacular fashion
• Police watch Australian terror suspects

“We will not give in either to fear or to hate,” said Mr Hollande on a cold and misty day in the courtyard of the historic Invalides (veterans) buildings, the 17th-century complex housing Napoleon’s tomb.

“To all of you, I solemnly promise that France will do everything to destroy the army of fanatics that committed these crimes,” he said before a crowd of 2,600 dignitaries and some of those injured in the violence.

Some sat in wheelchairs, while firefighters and ambulance personnel in uniform stood silently in rows, two weeks to the day since gunmen opened fire on bars, restaurants and a concert hall and detonated suicide vests at the Stade de France national stadium.

The attacks — claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group — were the worst ever terror attack on French soil, leaving 130 dead and 350 injured, and described as a declaration of war by Mr Hollande.

The attackers acted “in the name of an insane cause and a betrayed God,” Mr Hollande said.

He said France would respond to the attacks with more “songs, concerts and shows. We will continue to go to stadiums”.

People wounded in the Paris attacks and family members attend the ceremony.

Families boycott ceremony over security failures

Pictures of the victims were displayed on a giant screen, the photographs striking for the fact that few were of people under 40.
“130 destinies had been stolen, 130 laughs that will never be heard again,” Mr Hollande said, adding that they had come from more than 50 places in France and 17 countries.
“It’s because they represented life that they were killed, it’s because they represented France that they were slaughtered, it’s because they represented freedom that they were massacred.”

Singers gave a stirring rendition of the classic ballad Quand on n’a que l’amour (When All We Have Is Love) by Belgian songwriter Jacques Brel.

Reflecting the solemnity of the ceremony, Liberation and Le Parisien newspapers listed all the victims on their front pages Friday in stark black and white print.

However, a handful of the victims’ families boycotted Friday’s ceremony, saying the government failed to take sufficient measures to protect the nation in the wake of the jihadist shootings at Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper and a Jewish supermarket in Paris in January.

“Thanks Mr President, politicians, but we don’t want your handshake or your tribute, and we hold you partly responsible for what has happened!” Emmanuelle Prevost, whose brother was one ofthe 90 slaughtered at the Bataclan concert hall on November 13, wrote on Facebook.

Having vowed to crush IS for their role in the attacks, Mr Hollande has spent the week in a whirlwind diplomatic bid to build a broad military coalition, although his efforts have met with limited success.

As France mourns its dead, an international manhunt is still on for two key suspects in the attacks — Salah Abdeslam, who played a key logistical role in the wave of terror, and Mohamed Abrini, seen with Abdeslam two days before the November 13 atrocities.

The courtyard ceremony for the victims of the Paris attacks.

The French reclaim their colours: Flag sales soar

In light of the attacks, the French have proudly reclaimed their flag in a display of restrained, yet determined patriotism.

Flag manufacturers have reported a significant increase in sales of the tricolour flag.

In Paris, the blue, white and red has been hanging from windows, flapping on top of taxis and draped over shoulders.

The French president called on Parisians to hang their flag proudly — an unusual act for a nation not accustomed to putting forward such a display of nationalism.

In some countries the overt expression of national pride has become a symbol of the far right.

But the fact the French are lining up to buy their flag is an indication of the patriotism that has exploded since the November 13 attacks.

Hollande wins cooperation, not coalition against IS

After a week of talks with the leaders of the United States, Russia, Britain and Germany, Mr Hollande secured increased political and military support for his air campaign against IS.

His aim was to unite major powers in a single “grand coalition” to fight the militants behind the Paris attacks. But Russia’s air force mostly hit Western-backed rebels combating Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Nevertheless, French officials were touting a potentially significant advance in cooperation with Moscow.

“It’s major because of the agreement not to strike groups that are fighting Islamic State,” a French official said.

“What matters is coordination — the fact that we have a common objective to fight IS. It’s the result that matters, destroying Daesh (the Arabic acronym for Islamic State).”

But Mr Hollande’s goal of turning the two rival international military alliances waging a proxy war in Syria into a single broad coalition focused on defeating IS seems a long way off.

That is chiefly because the US-led coalition including Sunni Arab states Saudi Arabia and Qatar as well as Turkey aims to assist rebels in overthrowing the Assad regime, while the Russian-led team including Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia is allied with his armed forces.

It is also because US president Barack Obama is determined to avoid being sucked back into a war in the Middle East, or working militarily with Russia after its annexation of Crimea and support for Russian-speaking separatists in eastern Ukraine.