COEUR d'ALENE - Heather Riviere spent most of her adult years in Paris, prior to moving to Coeur d'Alene in 2008 with her husband, a French native named Philippe.

On Wednesday, Riviere said, she was glued to her computer and her television, learning everything she could about a terrorist attack that left 12 dead at the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris.

"It was so shocking and so horrific," Riviere said. "It was heinous what happened."

She added that while she just had encounters with the journalists as satirical illustrators, many of the people she knew in France had grown up seeing their work in films, books and comics.

"One of them even did a book that was essentially to help kids learn how to read," Riviere said. "And the fact that they targeted a specific group of people because they didn't like what they were writing about their religion made it much bigger than these senseless deaths."

Riviere got involved in the Coeur d'Alene French Club in 2008 and quickly helped the group organize. The group meets once a month, usually at Bakery by the Lake, and spends time conversing in French about a variety of topics.

However with the terrorist attacks in Paris on everyone's minds, the meeting on Saturday took a somber tone.

Many of the 15 members who attended held signs at the meeting that read "Je Suis Charlie," which means both "I am Charlie" and "I follow Charlie" in French.

In the wake of the attacks, the phrase quickly became a rallying cry for people throughout the world wishing to express solidarity.

"Everybody was just so shocked at what had happened," Riviere said. "There are a few members of the group that grew up in France reading their work and they were just horrified."

During the meeting, Philippe shared an illustration he drew after the attacks. The cartoon reads "Charia," which is the French word for Sharia, and has the last letters crossed out and "-lie" added so that it spells "Charlie." Below the text is a dying man drawn by Philippe to represent a character that one of the slain illustrators, Cabu, used frequently in his comics.

"Right away you saw other illustrators putting work like this out there to show their support for the publication," Riviere said. "My husband likes to draw and wanted to do something as well to express his frustration and sadness."

She added that the group spent a lot of time during the meeting discussing the importance of free speech and how French culture affected the nation's response to the terrorist attacks.

"It was so awesome to see everyone pull together and support this," Riviere said.

Pattie Strub, a Coeur d'Alene resident who has been a member of the group for two years, said it was touching to hear from members who are either from France or lived in France about how the cartoonists at "Charlie Hebdo" affected their lives.

"The cartoons were such a big part of the fabric of their lives, so the attacks were almost like a family member being murdered," Strub said. "The idea that that bond could be robbed from you makes you feel so violated."

A particularly touching moment for Strub was when the group stood to sing "The Marseilles," the French National Anthem, in front of a flag that Bakery by the Lake keeps for the group's meetings.

"Someone who was not even in our group stood up with us and sang along with the anthem," Strub added. "They were singing it in such a heartfelt manner and I just thought 'Wow this is someone just off the street joining in.'"