A Lakeland couple is home after being in Paris during the terrorist attacks last week.

Real estate agent Chris McLaughlin had taken his girlfriend Brandi Smith to Paris last week. He told her they were going there for a U2 concert. His real plan was to propose.

He did that at a restaurant Thursday evening and she said yes.

Chris McLaughlin proposed to Brandi Smith at the restaurant Jules Verne.

On Friday evening the couple was celebrating at the restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower. That’s when Brandi noticed lots of police vehicles below.

"There was a tunnel and they just kept coming out and out and out,” she said.

At first the couple thought it might just be a police escort for an important person or even U2. But they quickly realized something bad had happened.

"And then when we started seeing the ambulances and first responders then we knew something was up,” said McLaughlin.

A couple of minutes later McLaughlin received a text on his cell phone about the violence. Then he started getting texts from people back in Lakeland who wanted to make sure they were OK.

"She said, tell people you are OK. Are you OK? I responded yes. She said, 'thank God.' I responded writing a post, right now my phone is blowing up."

McLaughlin posted something on Facebook about how he and Brandi were fine. Then he started to think maybe they could be attacked next.

"I am sitting atop the number one terrorist target in all of Paris and all of France during a terrorism activity and I need to get out of here."

The tower wasn’t attacked and McLaughlin already had a car arranged to take the couple back to a hotel. The hotel staff required them to show their room access card to get inside and then called them a few hours later inside their room to make sure they were unharmed.

The next day they went to a famous shopping area but most of the stores were closed. There was also a heavy police presence outside a restaurant where they ate.

They made it back to Lakeland late Sunday night. "It's good to be back to focus on real estate and our upcoming nuptials,” said McLaughlin.