Nice remembers its 86 as Macron leads tenth anniversary tribute

Nice marked ten years since the July 14, 2016 attack on the Promenade des Anglais with a day of commemoration, beginning with the city's traditional Bastille Day military parade that morning and closing with an evening tribute led by President Emmanuel Macron.

The morning parade through Place Masséna carried its own political undercurrent, with new Nice mayor Éric Ciotti hosting Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen in the VIP seating as soldiers, police and emergency services passed by.

By evening, the day turned to remembrance. The tribute ceremony began at 6pm with a demonstration by the Patrouille de France aerobatic team, followed by a moment organisers had built the day around: 43 children, each accompanied by one of the first responders who had helped save lives that night, laid olive branches on chairs set out in memory of the dead.

Macron laid a wreath and led a minute's silence. "We have forgotten no name, no face, no story," he said, adding that the tribute also carried the memory of Nice's other attacks in the past decade, including the 2015 assault on soldiers and the 2020 attack at the Basilique Notre-Dame.

The city held no fireworks display this year, replacing it instead with a concert by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice at 8.30pm, a drone show at 10pm, and the lighting of 86 beams along the Promenade at 10.34pm, the exact time the attacker's lorry entered the crowd in 2016, closing the day the way it began ten years ago: in silence.