Where heightened vigilance has become the norm in France, the Bastille Day attack is a huge shock
It is not often that the French president addresses the nation at 3.45am, even in a country where heightened vigilance has become the norm. A few hours earlier, the Promenade des Anglais in Nice was the scene of a massacre. Thousands of families and tourists had been celebrating the memory of the French revolution and the birth of democracy, when an 18-tonne lorry forced a security aside and mowed into the crowds, killing 84 innocent people, among them many children.
Every French person remembers the first time they set foot in Nice, and this corner of paradise called the French Riviera. As a Parisian child aged 10, accustomed to all the capital’s shades of grey, what struck me immediately was the blinding summer light. And the palm trees: so many towering palms against a backdrop of perfect blue sky. I’d never seen such a sight before. As for the Promenade des Anglais, it was every bit as beautiful as it appeared in the Raoul Dufy poster I had at home.
This is the third attack on France and the French way of life in 18 months. Everyone of us has been targeted by this radical Islamist ideology: cartoonists, journalists, French Jews, football fans, diners, rock fans, and now families enjoying that most childlike and wondrous of spectacles: Bastille Day fireworks.
While we may have got used to round-the-clock army patrols at sites throughout the country, and we may be grateful that some of our philosophers, writers and scholars get 24-hour police protection, it is still hard to bear this heavy weight on our shoulders.
Just last weekend, we were so relieved that Euro 2016 had finished without a hitch. French police could certainly have done without Russian and English hooligans, and violent demonstrations against the labour reform, but all in all, things had gone well, and we were happy that the French team had made it to the final.
