French presidential couple attend funeral service of teacher slain in school attack

By NICOLAS GARRIGA and JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press

ARRAS, France (AP) — Loved ones and colleagues have mourned and celebrated the life of a French-language teacher stabbed to death in a school attack blamed on a suspected Islamic extremist. Dominique Bernard was remembered at his funeral service Thursday as a sensitive, crowd-shy man who loved literature, art and nature and was a devoted mentor to his pupils. French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, were among mourners at the cathedral in Arras. Bernard taught at the Gambetta-Carnot school in the northern French town. He was 57. His wife described her husband as a great lover of literature, music, art, cinema and “the raking evening light.” She said he shunned computers, crowds and social networks, didn’t have a cellphone and “didn’t like the noise and furor of the world.”