THE spots where the bodies fell are now marked by makeshift memorials along the palm-fringed beachfront. Some are ringed by pebbles. Most feature candles, stems of white flowers and teddy bears. Ten children were among the 84 killed on July 14th, when a 31-year-old Tunisian citizen ploughed a 19-tonne truck into Bastille Day crowds. A football lies among the mementos left where a 13-year-old French boy, Mehdi, was killed. His aunt died a step away. “I just hope this won’t be turned against us,” says a grieving family member, whose origins are in Morocco. “We grew up in France; we come from here too.”
This was the third mass terrorist attack in 18 months, and the bloodiest on French soil since the Paris attacks last November. The proudest emblems of French life have been targeted: freedom of expression (Charlie Hebdo) and religion (a Jewish supermarket), as well as the security forces, in January 2015; sport, music and pavement cafés, in November 2015. Now, terror has struck seaside festivities for the country’s national day at one of its most famous resorts, favoured by Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and painted by Matisse and…