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Though Michelle Butz was born in the U.S. after her mother immigrated stateside from France, she has more family in her mother's home country than here.

To her, the terrorist attacks in the heart of Paris felt close to home.

With a French flag wrapped around her on a cold Sunday evening, Butz joined more than 120 people for a vigil on the steps of the Utah Capitol. Together, they shared stories, clutched balloons, hoisted signs and sang the French national anthem in a show of solidarity with the grieving French people.

"I have a niece in Paris who is going to school," Butz said. "I have a friend whose nephew was at the concert and actually lost one of his friends and the other was injured. So, yeah, it brings it home, right to your neighborhood. It doesn't matter where you live."

The coordinated gun and suicide bombing attacks Friday night killed at least 129 people in the deadliest violence on French soil since World War II.

Sandrine Yang has friends who live near the site of the carnage. They were in the streets Friday night helping people "who had gotten sprayed by stray bullets," she said. Her own family and friends in Paris are all right.

The same goes for Julien Naudot, who arrived in Salt Lake City only two months ago to teach French at an immersion school. He was worried, though; he has family who work in Paris, and he has friends who were at the soccer match, where crowds could hear the explosions.

"We were on Skype and Facebook and on the phone from Friday night until just [today]," Naudot said.

The photographs he has seen of a nearly vacant Paris, normally teeming with people, felt strange.

"You can see the Eiffel Tower was empty. You can see the Louvre was empty. You can see the streets and restaurants were empty," Naudot said. "It's very weird because you're in a very crowded city. It's like no one was living [there]."

David Barthod's friends were stuck in restaurants and bars during the onslaught.

"They're all safe," he said, "and I think spent the weekend with friends at home, with coffee, just trying to understand what happened and relax."

Like Barthod, Laurent Fiorina moved to Utah from the French Alps. Standing with dozens of others — some gripping red, white and blue balloons, others holding signs expressing love for France — Fiorina said it was heartwarming to see that people care.

"It's important for people to be able to tell their stories," Butz said. "It's where the healing happens."

Vilia Kinsey, who was born in Versailles before she moved to the U.S., said in a short speech to the crowd that Americans understand what the French are going through, having been the target of terrorism as well.

"It's a very hard thing to see a country get attacked," Kinsey said. "So as much support as we can give them, the more they can heal from this."

As allies, she added, the U.S. needs to stand by France and its people, and show solidarity.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

mmcfall@sltrib.com Twitter: @MikeyPanda