On the occasion of the greetings to the Italian community, in the presence of the Consul General in Nice, Mrs. Serena Lippi, and a large audience, the Mayor of Nice announced that within the promenade of Paillon, along the boulevard Jean-Jaurès, there will be an avenue named “des Italiens”.
Christian Estrosi, in a highly rhetorical speech, went even further: “I do say it must be reborn because, as you know, it is resurrecting, almost in the same place, the former name of boulevard Jean-Jaurès, which was abolished in 1946.
Today, the question is not why, in 1946, one of my predecessors deemed it right to abolish this name. Rather, the question is why, in 1886, another of my predecessors deemed it right to give this name to this magnificent boulevard, thereby encompassing all the Italians of Nice.
And the answer is simple, which I entirely make my own today: It is that without the Italians, the Nice we know would not exist.
The Italians to whom the boulevard paid tribute, and to whom we want to pay tribute today, are those thousands of anonymous men and women, those thousands, even tens of thousands, who came to give Nice, and France, all their work force, all their ingenuity, all their skill, all their talents, and profoundly transform our city.”
One must come to Nice to hear these beautiful expressions addressed to the Italians!
In any case, Sursum corda. As for the rest, we will see!
