The French Riviera has long been a playground of the rich and famous and its beauty ensures it remains one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.
Nice, victim of the horrific terror attack last night, is the second-most visited French city after Paris.
Yet, like any urban area in the world, Nice’s population is diverse and a minority of it is highly dangerous.
The British author William Somerset Maugham, who lived and died in Nice in the first half of the 20th century, famously described the region as “a sunny place for shady people”.
Sadly, his quip now seems rather quaint.
For behind the impressive facade of Nice’s expensive hotels, boutiques, casinos and restaurants lurks a criminal underworld, some of which is known by the French authorities to have links to radicalised Muslims.
In February 2015, three French soldiers were stabbed outside a Jewish community centre in the city in what was seen at the time as a terror attack.
Nice is home to many North African migrants and the disparity between them and Nice’s affluent population has helped to fuel tensions. The simple fact is that many of the migrants feel cut off from mainstream society, increasing their susceptibility to radicalisation.
Most people who visit Nice would have no idea that Marseilles, about 100 miles away, has several no-go areas – places which the French police cannot enter because they are too dangerous. It is a truly sobering thought.
What will worry tourist chiefs in France most about last night’s Bastille Day massacre, thought to be the 10th terror attack in France in last 18 months, is that the lone wolf who carried out the mass murder opted to strike at the softest targets – families and children who were out enjoying themselves on the Promenade des Anglais.
These were not the film stars and oligarchs who use the Riviera as their playground, but holidaymakers in the most traditional sense.
If France is to maintain the confidence of tourists it will have to increase its surveillance.
Whether that makes it such an attractive place to go holiday in future is for now an open question.