recovered windows live mail contacts, but how to open and retrieve the info?

I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8 over the weekend.  I was forced to do a PC refresh and re-install Windows 8 a second time in order for it to work on my laptop.  I find now that the PC refresh erased my Contacts from Windows Live Mail that I was using on Windows 7.  I am able to recover the Contacts files from my online backup prior to the upgrade.  But is there a way for me to import them into the People app or at least to open the file to get the info to manually add some of my contacts into people?  I have lost some important email addresses that I did not have stored elsewhere.  They were backed up.....