In a small room on the top floor of a downtown office building, Chattanooga's close-knit French community had a simple response to the terror attacks in their homeland: They raised a glass of wine.
"People are scared," said Aurelie Orzechowski, event manager for the local chapter of the French-American Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the get-together in the Walden Club last week. "But they will still go to a bistro to have a glass of wine - it is an act of resistance."
The attacks were not on military or government buildings, but rather on restaurants, a concert hall and a sports stadium. Several of the 50 guests noted that the targets reflected the French love of food, wine, music and relaxation.
It seemed only natural to those with French ties that the proper response be to return to those pleasures with a vengeance.
"It is who we are; it is what we fought for," Orzechowski said.
"My friends [in Paris] anticipate more [attacks], but they are going out to cafes," said Francine Fuqua, a former CPA who is now retired. "Even the Germans in World War II couldn't stop us from doing that."
Thursday's event was scheduled to celebrate the release of the first bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau, the new release of a light red wine from the Beaujolais region north of the city of Lyon. Chamber President Emmanuel Becquet, who is from Lyon, said the group never considered canceling the annual celebration.
Instead, Becquet read a statement - in French and in English - expressing condolences to the families of the victims of the Paris attacks - 129 dead and more than 350 wounded. Then he led a moment of silence.
The occasion was quiet, but not somber, with the violence still uppermost in most attendees' minds.
"It is heavy being far away," said Becquet, whose wife is from Chattanooga. "It wouldn't make a difference if we were there, but we wish we were closer."
When he first got the news, Becquet started calling other members of the group. As far as he could determine, no one had a friend or family member who was injured or killed.
Then he turned to his computer.
"I spent the weekend watching a French 24-hour news channel," he said.
Nasera Souidi, who founded the local chamber in 2012, said she got the news when a producer from WRCB-TV called to ask her to comment.
"I said, 'What are you talking about?'"
Souidi, who is the manager of the IT project management office with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, called to check on her family and friends. They were fine, she said.
"It hit home," she added. "You feel so helpless."
Fuqua said it took her two days to contact all of her 13 relatives who live in Paris.
With wine as their weapon of choice, there was no reluctance to talk politics and policy Thursday's gathering.
Orzechowski argued that the U.S. and France had to work together to "solve the Syrian problem" that spawned ISIS, the group behind the terror attacks - even if that involves working with Iran and Russia.
Becquet said the French may have second thoughts about their previous antipathy to large American computer companies such as Google, who have sometimes shared information with government agencies. Perhaps that isn't such a bad idea after all now, he said.
Fuqua, who moved to the U.S. after marrying a member of the U.S. military, said many of her friends in France are wondering how the U.S could consider barring Syrian refugees from immigrating here. Isn't that the whole point of the Statue of Liberty, she asked, allowing in refugees to practice the religion of their choice?
Orzechowski's husband, Fadi Abou-Ghantous, is general manager for the local boiler services plant of Alstom, the General Electric-owned power equipment company. He was raised in France and Lebanon, and said he has had more than enough of terrorism in the past six months. First there were the July 16 attacks in Chattanooga. Then there were twin explosions in Beirut, Lebanon, where he still has friends and family. The following day, the Paris attacks unfolded.
But on Thursday evening, the focus was on normalcy.
"My uncle used to say, 'In vino, veritas' - 'In wine, there is truth,'" Orzechowski said in remarks to the group. "And he was correct. After a couple of glasses, people say what they believe. But I would like to alter that tonight to this - 'In vino, liberte - 'In wine, liberty.'"
And while Francine Fuqua still worried about her family in Paris, she had other things on her mind as well.
Later in the evening she was to make a short address to the group, not about her thoughts on terrorism, but something perhaps more appropriate to the occasion: the history of wine.
Contact reporter Steve Johnson at sjohnson@timesfreepress.com, 423-757-6673, on Twitter @stevejohnsonTFP, and on Facebook at stevejohn sonTFP.