The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale published by S.E.P.T. of 2, Rue Alexis-Mossa, Nice. The image is a real photograph, and the card has a divided back.
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France and the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes département. Located in the French Riviera, on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the Alps, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast.
The city is nicknamed Nice la Belle, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912.
The area of today's Nice contains Terra Amata, an archaeological site which displays evidence of an early use of fire.
Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, the goddess of victory.
The natural beauty of the Nice area and its mild Mediterranean climate came to the attention of the English upper classes in the second half of the 18th century, when an increasing number of aristocratic families took to spending their winters there.
The city's main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais owes its name to early English visitors to the resort.
The clear air and soft light have particularly appealed to notable painters, such as Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse. Their work is commemorated in many of the city's museums, including Musée Marc Chagall, Musée Matisse and Musée des Beaux-Arts.
Nice has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and is one of its most visited cities, receiving 4 million tourists every year. It also has the third busiest airport in France, after the two main Parisian ones.
The Terrorist Truck Attack
On 14 July 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into a crowd of people by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel on the Promenade des Anglais. The crowd were watching a fireworks display in celebration of Bastille Day.
The attack, which had taken months to plan, resulted in the deaths of eighty-seven people, including ten children. The perpetrator was shot dead by police. Another 202 people were injured, with 52 in critical care and 25 in intensive care.
Christophe Lion was the only survivor from a family group who had travelled to Nice from the French border area near Luxembourg, according to French media.
His wife Veronique Lion, 55, and her 28-year-old son Michael Pellegrini, a professor of economics, were killed along with Veronique's parents Francois and Christiane Locatelli, aged 82 and 78, and Christophe's parents Gisele Lion, 63, and Germain Lion, 68 - a total of six family members.
Paris tobacconist Timothe Fournier, 27, died protecting his heavily pregnant wife, Anais. She described how he pushed her out of the path of the lorry before being struck down himself:
"He was a young dreamer,
but he was always there for
his wife and future child".
The Terrorist Knife Attack
Nice has since suffered a further terrorist attack. On the morning of the 29th. October 2020, a woman and a man were killed by a terrorist with a 12-inch knife inside the Basilica of Notre-Dame. The woman aged 60, who had gone to the Basilica to worship, was found decapitated near the font of the church. The murdered man was the Basilica's church warden, 55 year-old Vincent Loquès, father of two.
The third victim - 44 year old mother of three Simone Silva managed to escape, and staggered to a nearby bar where she succumbed to her injuries. Her final words were:
"Tell my children I love them".
Armed police stormed Notre-Dame and shot the suspected terrorist, wounding him. The suspect was taken to hospital. Nice mayor Christian Estrosi said the attacker kept shouting "Allahu Akbar" even after he had been shot.
The terrorist was Brahim Aoussaoui, a 21 year old Tunisian migrant who had arrived in Europe by boat on the Italian island of Lampedusa 39 days earlier on the 20th. September. He arrived in Nice the night before the attack.
The Basilica attack came amid heightened security fears in France due to the ongoing row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
France provoked the ire of Iran and Turkey by taking a tough line in defending the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
On the 28th. October 2020, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani warned the row over the cartoons could lead to violence and bloodshed. He said:
"It's a surprise that this would come
from those claiming culture and
democracy, that they would somehow,
even if unintentionally, encourage
violence and bloodshed.
Westerners must understand the great
Prophet of Islam is loved by all Muslims
and freedom-lovers of the world.
Insulting the Prophet is insulting all
Muslims.
Insulting the Prophet is insulting all
prophets, human values, and amounts
to undermining ethic".
Samuel Paty
Samuel Paty, 47, was beheaded by 18-year-old freedom-lover Abdullah Anzorov on the 17th. October 2020 after using the cartoons to teach his students about the importance of free speech. An image he showed to students was the same one published by Charlie Hebdo that sparked the attack on the magazine's offices that killed 12.
Anzorov followed Paty as he left the school, having paid two students, aged 14 and 15, around €300 to identify him. Using a knife 30 centimetres (12 in) long, Anzorov killed Paty and beheaded him in the Rue du Buisson Moineau in Éragny-sur-Oise near the school where Paty taught, at approximately 5:00 p.m.
In addition to decapitating Paty, Anzorov inflicted a number of wounds to his head, abdomen, and upper limbs. Witnesses told police they heard the killer shout "Allahu Akbar" during the attack.
Minutes after the murder, an account named @Tchetchene_270 (French: Chechen 270), identified by prosecutor Jean-François Ricard as belonging to Abdullah Anzorov, posted on Twitter an image of Paty's severed head.
The image was seen by many of Paty's students.
The photo was accompanied by the message:
"In the name of Allah, the most gracious,
the most merciful, .. to Macron, leader of
the infidels, I executed one of your
hellhounds who dared to belittle Muhammad,
calm his fellow human beings before a harsh
punishment is inflicted on you."
Minutes later, Anzorov was confronted by police about 600 metres (660 yd) from the scene in Éragny. Anzorov shot at the police with an air rifle and tried to stab them with a knife. In response, the police shot him nine times, killing him. On Anzorov's phone, they found a text claiming responsibility and a photograph of Paty's body.
French police announced that there were more than 80 messages on social media from French people supporting the attacker, with Anzorov being described by some individuals as a 'martyr.'
Paty, a history and geography teacher, is being seen as a champion of free speech by many in France after his brutal death. He was posthumously given the Legion d'Honneur - France’s highest award - and French president Emmanuel Macron insisted:
"We will not give up our cartoons".
The mayor of Nice said after the Notre-Dame attack:
"Enough is enough. It's time now
for France to exonerate itself from
the laws of peace in order to
definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism
from our territory."
