Some were already there five years, nine months and seven days ago.
On January 11, 2015, they brandished Republican placards to assert, after the killing in the premises of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, "I am Charlie".
Others, younger, demonstrate this Sunday for the first time.
This time, they come to say "I am Samuel", "I am a teacher", "I am a teacher".
This Sunday, October 18, tens of thousands of people gathered throughout France, as an act of resistance after the terrorist attack which claimed the life of Samuel Paty on Friday.
This 47-year-old father, who taught history and geography at the college of Bois d'Aulne, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines) was killed and beheaded by an 18-year-old of Chechen origin, who was then shot dead by police.
A few days earlier, the professor gave a class on free speech and showed caricatures of Muhammad.
VIDEO. Tribute to Samuel Paty: "We are here to show that we are not afraid"
In Lyon, where Samuel had studied and graduated to become a teacher.
In Paris.
In Marseille, Brest, Grenoble, Bordeaux, Lille, Strasbourg.
And even in Brussels, in front of the French consulate, the Marseillaise sounded everywhere, minutes of silence were observed, flowers were laid.
Prime Minister Jean Castex, members of the government, party officials were there.
And a crowd, coming with family, friends, colleagues, as if time had stood still, that the Covid-19 epidemic no longer had - for a few hours - a voice.
"A desire to form a united front against danger"
This moment, the French needed it.
“Already, because sadness, when it is shared, becomes lighter, points out the psycho-sociologist Dominique Picard, a specialist in social rituals.
And above all because faced with such a revolting event, everyone has the desire to show their solidarity, their indignation and to stand together against the danger.
The danger here is the murderous attack on secularism, freedom of expression, freedom to learn, to teach.
“It is not an individual problem but a social problem.
The attack was made against a man, but also against the educational institution and the cultural values of France, ”continues the professor emeritus, who grew up in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
In Toulouse, on the Place du Capitole, a compact crowd in memory of Samuel Paty./AFP/Georges Gobet
To form a body, to support each other, to stick together… symbolically because barrier gestures remain in order.
And this Sunday, it is not because the mouths are scrupulously masked that they are gagged.
In Lille or Lyon, we even hear on the continuous news channels, the languages loosen, testifying to the extremisms which invite themselves to school.
Teachers reveal parents' remonstrances about their buttoned “not enough” skirt or blouse.
Another, in the Parisian suburbs, explains that a student threatened to “send Daesh” to her after a course on Islam.
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This does not surprise Najwa El Haïté.
Recently, this doctor of law, assistant SE (without label) in the city of Evry (Essonne) posed in "one" of the Figaro magazine against Islamism, alongside four other women.
This Sunday, she expressed her anger in Paris.
And his determination.
“We won't let go,” she warns.
Faced with political Islam which is gaining ground in public schools, the army, the police, the public services, we oppose our unity and our absolute defense of the values of our republic.
The chosen one pauses, shaken by emotion.
She lost her father, a Moroccan immigrant, during the night from Friday to Saturday.
“Despite this, I still came, because he ardently supported my fight against communitarianism.
I do it for him, for all of us.
"
Place de la République in Paris./LP/Valentin Cebron
Already, before the national tribute scheduled for Wednesday, other gatherings are announced, especially in the establishments where Samuel Paty had taught for the past 23 years.
In the meantime, everyone has returned to their home.
A cruel reality hunts another, this virus which for the second evening imposed a curfew at 9 p.m.