Looks at the impact of the different terrorist attacks in France during 2015. In a historical and sociological perspective it defends the idea that these traumatic events revealed a deep crisis of French national identity, characterized by an erosion of the basic points of reference of the French nation. But the author also argues that this is not only a French specificity: the French crisis is part of a more general transformation of European societies which have to deal with new challenges.
Keywords: Societal change, Nation State, French Republic, Secularism, Crisis of politics, France and Europe, Migrations