PARIS - Some people cried, others simply lit candles or laid flowers at the Paris sites where Islamist extremists struck a year ago, killing 130, in coordinated attacks.

After a solemn and somber anniversary ceremony led by President Francois Hollande, people have paid respects to the dead at the Bataclan concert hall where 90 were killed, and restaurants and bars dotting a lively neighborhood.

Hannah Schumann, a nurse, says that "everybody is emotional. I'm crying."

In a sign of hope, several hundred balloons have been released from the nearby town hall in the presence of Hollande, and lanterns are to be floated along the Canal Saint-Martin as dusk nears.