Nice attack: Quiet shock reigns on the city’s streets

Nice is quiet today, moving a little slower than it was yesterday, but it still moves. There is a strange disconnect between the way a city that has fallen victim to an horrific terror attack looks on television, and how it feels to those moving around it. Even somewhere that has seen such a terrible number of deaths in the middle of a lovely, gentle family event which had been filled with smiles and the oohs and ahhs of a firework display then looks surprisingly normal the following day.

People were of course still going to work and buying coffee this morning, just with slightly blank expressions on their faces, or with phones pressed to their ears as they spoke to all their family and friends to reassure them that they were safe. They looked more anxiously at police cars driving through the streets.

France was in an official state of emergency before this attack.