Felicity Long
NICE, France -- Beautiful September weather brought beachgoers out in droves during my recent visit here, but it would be a mistake to assume that life goes on as usual.
Along the bustling Promenade des Anglais, just steps from where children play on the beach, one of several memorials to the victims of the July 14 terrorist attack is splayed out along the walkway, set off by a makeshift guardrail. Flowers, stuffed animals, candles and notes are scattered among French flags, and passers by stop to take photos or simply look. The scene is strangely silent.
Across the street an even bigger memorial covers every inch of a children's carousel, with mementos, flags, notes of condolence in various languages and poems and heartfelt exhortations for peace spilling onto the facing wall. The sheer number of items is staggering. I see only one negative sign -- a profanity, followed by the word "Daesh," a synonym for ISIS.
But Nice itself remains lively despite these reminders of grief, and, judging from the unscientific method of eavesdropping on passers-by, plenty of the visitors are American. I fell into conversation with a couple from Chicago who were finishing a Grand Circle Travel tour of France, and I asked them if they had had any trepidations about either Paris or Nice.
"Not really, but our friends were worried about us," the woman said, and her husband added: "But then, they don't travel."
Old Town Nice was thronged on the Friday night of our stay, with packed restaurants, bars and shops. What I didn't see among the crowds were any visible signs of security. Contrast that with Paris where, a week earlier, we routinely saw armed police walking the streets.
Not seeing police in Nice doesn't mean they weren't there, however, and they were very much in evidence at the train station the next day. In fact, two uniformed police entered the train and walked each compartment looking at passengers before we departed.
During the days immediately following the attack, there were massive tour and hotel cancellations, the beaches were closed and the Nice Jazz Festival, set for July 16 to 20, was canceled.
In all, international visitor arrivals in Nice dropped by almost 10% in the days following the attack. But by our visit September heartening signs of a city slowly coming back to life are evident: Some Nice hotels are experiencing a rebound, according to Irinova Iovan, director of sales for Hotel La Perouse, which overlooks the Baie des Anges at the foot of the city's castle, and the property was certainly bustling during our stay.
Along the coast in St. Tropez, the Villa Belrose reported only one recent cancellation, according to Caroline Ougier, sales and marketing manager, although a few clients did call anxiously in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Of course, St. Tropez is a good hour-and-a-half away by car from Nice, and the property's secluded location on a private road also helped ease guests' concerns.
"We can never say nothing could happen here," Ougier said. "You can't say that about anywhere anymore. But just because something could happen doesn't mean it will."
As to the other topic that has been in the news lately about the Riviera region -- the controversial bans (and subsequent reversals) of allowing burkinis on the beach -- both women were stunned to hear that the issue had received international coverage.
They agreed that the bans and the hoopla surrounding them created more of a problem than they eliminated.
"I have never even seen a burkini on the beach in the first place, and I go to the beach all the time," Iovan said.
That said, I saw a woman in a burkini my first night in Nice; not swimming but stretching in preparation for a run under cover of darkness. By the time I registered her appearance and turned around for another discreet look, she was gone.