But there has been another shocking death toll in recent days with reports of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people massacred by Boko Haram.
Even there the Paris deaths got more press than those in Nigeria, said media analyst Ethan Zuckerman.
He pointed out that Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan expressed sympathy to the French but said nothing about Baga.
Newsbeat looks at the numbers.
Muhammad Abba Gava, a spokesman for a defence group that fights Boko Haram, said they gave up on trying to count all the bodies.
"No-one could attend to the corpses and even the seriously injured ones who may have died by now," he said.
Nigeria has since said the number of people who lost their lives was no more than 150, with the defence ministry claiming it included "many of the terrorists" who had attacked the town.
Nigeria has been known to underestimate death tolls to downplay the threat of Boko Haram.
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France is still in shock after the deadly shootings in Paris which left 17 people dead.