A week after the attack that struck the city of Nice, the association “Alpes-Maritimes Fraternitรฉ” wished, on this Thursday, July 21, to lay wreaths in memory of the victims. Like many people who have already come to pay their respects at the music kiosk in Albert I Garden since Sunday. The President of the region and the metropolis, Christian Estrosi, was present.
The “Alpes-Maritimes Fraternitรฉ” association is a consultation body, among all religions, which brings together all the faiths present in the city of Nice and the department. It also includes different political groups participating in municipal councils. This Thursday, it decided to gather each faith: Jewish, Muslim, Christian, to come together in front of this music kiosk, a place that has become symbolic in recent days.
Before their arrival, the atmosphere is solemn, calm. Most faces are somber, except for a few, distraught, dismayed, too tired from having cried so much for days.
Many have come to leave a gift, "for you, up there": stuffed animals, coloring pages, candles, handwritten messages, flags, flowers... Childhood is omnipresent. The image necessarily represents the tragedy. Many... Too many children have perished.
These gifts stir the spirit of everyone this afternoon. The messages to those who died during the tragedy convey heavy emotions. The center of the kiosk, elevated compared to the park, amplifies this feeling. Its circular architecture places visitors at the center of the tributes, as if the emotion reverberated, infinitely.
The members of the association entered this place, like its occupants, silently, moved. Then, for them, followed moments of immobilization and contemplation, heads bowed, without a sound, facing the wreaths laid on the Promenade's side.
Despite the small crowd of curious onlookers around, their presence did not change the atmosphere or the focus of those who came simply to pay tribute to the deceased. That was not their goal. They did not overdo it. They were simply there, at the music kiosk, for a purpose similar to everyone. Remembrance.
Thibault Bourru.
