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Of course, they are deeply saddened, but there is also something really beautiful about the vigils that follow these terrible events.
The backdrop of the Notre Dame Basilica at night, with candles lighting the exterior pavement, was impressive.
In the hours before COVID-19 the confinement forced them off the streets, I joined some of the hundreds of people who traveled here to pay their respects after the knife attack in Nice.
Locals in Nice light candles outside the basilica where the attack occurred
Some cried, others prayed, all stopped to remember the three victims.
One of the best-known monuments in the city, the basilica stands here on Avenue Jean Medecin since 1864.
The site of Thursday’s atrocity It is only one kilometer from the place where a terrorist killed dozens of people on the boardwalk in a truck attack four years ago.
That tragedy, large-scale and brutal, had a profound impact on this southern city.
The gruesome detail surrounding the beheading of a 60-year-old woman on Thursday has shocked people here to the core.
Far-right protesters invaded the streets before the lockdown was imposed early on Friday.
Caroline Adam was in the vigil. Twelve hours earlier he had been in the same place, witnessing the panic outside and listening to the horror unfolding inside the basilica.
“I was here this morning,” he said, his face partially covered by a mask.
“I heard screams. I am very shocked by all this. Like Nicoise, I am very shocked. I heard screams and the police told us to flee quickly.
“I said this is not normal. I thought it was a bomb. I keep thinking about those three people, it’s horrible, horrible.”
Herve Le Bihan, a local parishioner, also felt the need to pay his respects at the basilica.
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He said: “My compassion goes out to all the victims and the families of the victims.
“This is not the first time that a church has been attacked, that Catholics have been attacked in their place of worship. It is very symbolic what they have done.
“We need a strong response, I am very unhappy about a situation like this.”
Herve, like many in Nice and elsewhere in France, is desperately concerned about the possibility of further attacks.
Your concerns are understandable. On the same day that the 21-year-old Tunisian migrant struck in Nice, Avignon city police shot dead an armed suspect.
Emergency services are shown on the scene.
And a security guard was attacked and wounded in front of the French consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
It follows a call earlier in the week, by the Islamic State terror group, for a wave of attacks against French interests.
It comes against a backdrop of mounting anger in parts of the Muslim world over the French government’s decision to back the right of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to republish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
It is, the French president insists, at the very heart of this nation’s secular tradition.
The police officers are in the photo standing guard outside the church.
There is no doubt that tensions are rising here. You can feel it.
While observing the vigil, the police rushed to arrest a group of around 200 far-right protesters on the street.
Finally, they were allowed to march to the basilica, singing the French national anthem and waving the tricolor as they approached the scene of the attack.
Amid calls for calm, not everyone here is content to mark this latest attack with quiet reflection. There are others much more angry and defiant.
