Hilton Head Island couple were on honeymoon in Paris during attacks
For Andre and Joann Cilliers of Hilton Head Island, Friday started out the way every day had since their honeymoon began.
They were together -- in Paris, walking home to the villa they had rented on the Seine.
Then the sirens began, the sound followed by a seemingly endless stream of police vehicles and ambulances speeding past.
It was clear something awful was happening.
Back at the villa, Andre Cilliers turned on the TV. The couple watched the horror unfold across the city.
Less than a mile away, a restaurant had been attacked by gunmen, one of several coordinated attacks across the French capital that would leave over 130 dead and hundreds more injured.
Just minutes from some of the areas targeted in the terror attacks, the Cilliers stared at the television for the next four hours as brutality and death spread across the city -- reports of scores dead, scenes of people running from the Bataclan theatre, and police storming the building.
"It was pretty horrific," he said. "It was kind of like Sept. 11 in a sense. It wasn't on the same scale, but the emotions were the same. You didn't know what was going to be next...It was very surreal to be right there. It happened right around the corner from us."
The couple quickly let friends and family know they were safe. The Cilliers also used the Facebook safety check implemented after the attacks, but it briefly set off a panic when someone didn't understand the message.
The couple arrived in France on Oct. 30 and spent five days in Paris before traveling to other parts of the country.
They had returned to city Nov. 9 for one last stay their before their flight home Monday.
Then the attacks came.
The Cilliers tried to move up their flight home to Saturday or Sunday.
But when they called the airline's call center, staff there did not know about the attack and their flight could not be moved, Cilliers said.
They awoke Saturday to an unnaturally quiet city.
They had to decide whether to stay shut in their villa until their flight Monday, or step out into the city and risk being a target in potential follow-up attacks.
Their decision was quick and calculated.
They'd venture out into the city, but stay away from popular spots. Cilliers said he and his wife had planned to take a cruise on the Seine and travel to the Eiffel Tower over the weekend. They stayed away from both.
"We made our peace," he said. "We were going to go out and share in the experience of the aftermath. We were not going to stay in."
The Cilliers were struck by how much the city had changed in less than 24 hours. It didn't have the normal hustle and bustle of a weekend in Paris. The crowds that were out were somber.
"Saturday was very quiet," he said. "It was not like Paris at all. There wasn't that frenetic, big-city activity. Normally there's a lot of life, but it seemed like people were in shock."
Across the Seine from their villa, roads around the Palais de Justice had been closed to all traffic.
Groups of armed police and military patrolled the building.
The couple saw emergency vehicles continuing to speed past.
On Sunday, it was a little better. More people were out. The Cilliers took in an antique fair and decided to attend a memorial service at Notre Dame Cathedral.
"It was just an unbelievable mass inside," he said. "It was an incredibly moving experience."
The city had changed again as it slowly started the healing process, Andre Cilliers said.
"It was almost like ... the people said 'hold on, we're going to live our lives,'" he said. "They said 'we're not going to hide away. We're going to enjoy our city.' It was a very different ambiance. There was a lot of chatting, a lot of happy people and smiling, but there were hugs and tears in between.
"It was their way of saying 'up yours' to the terrorists."
Follow reporter Matt McNab on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Matt.
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This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Hilton Head Island couple were on honeymoon in Paris during attacks."