One of the Paris cafes where drinkers died in a hail of bullets on November 13 reopened yesterday, three weeks to the day after the Islamist militant attacks that killed 130 people.

“It’s time to get together again, united, to move on and not forget,” said a message on the menu-board at the cafe, A La Bonne Biere, where five people died.

Audrey Bily, manager of the first attacked cafe to reopen its doors, said the walls of the premises had been repainted and the “stigmata of this nightmare” removed.

Speaking in front of dozens of early-day clients and TV cameras, she said it was time to “bounce back”.

The cafe is one of six where Friday night drinkers died when gunmen opened fire with AK-47 rifles as part of a multi-pronged attack involving gunmen and suicide bombers.

At the Bataclan rock concert venue where three gunmen killed 90 of the 130 total, the managers said earlier this week that they hoped to reopen the well-known venue by the end of next year.

Several other eastern Paris cafes and restaurants hit in the attacks hope to reopen sooner as the most visited city in the world seeks to resume normal life.

Finance Minister Michel Sapin said earlier this week that the attackers probably spent in the range of 20,000 euros to 30,000 euros ($22,000-33,000) on organisation and equipment, illustrating how cheap it is to inflict massive damage.

Beyond the human toll, the short-term impact on economic life in the French capital heading into the year-end festive period, has been significant, though the French central bank said in a report yesterday it was “likely to be transitory”.

Hotel revenues in the Paris region fell by 50 percent in the week after the attacks, according the Chamber of Commerce business association.

Meanwhile, a Molotov cocktail hurled at a Cairo restaurant killed 16 people and wounded two yesterday, Egyptian security officials said.

One of the officials said the attacker was an employee who had been fired from the restaurant in the Agouza area in the center of the Egyptian capital.

The victims were burned to death or died from smoke inhalation. The restaurant, also a nightclub, was located in a basement, offering no escape route, the officials said.

The interior ministry said an initial investigation indicated that the Molotov was hurled after a dispute erupted between restaurant workers and others.— Reuters.

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