Local French couple troubled by Nice attack

The latest attack in Nice, France left relatives in southern Colorado fearing the worst.

Annette Bonnart’s relatives live about 500 yards from the Promenade, a beautiful strip along the coast in southeast France.

Shortly after Bonnart heard about the truck that drove through the crowd, killing dozens, she tried calling them.

However, it took several attempts to reach them.

“It was about 5:30am over there, and my cousin came to the phone and answered and said ‘Annette is that you?’ I said yes, it’s me, are you ok? she said ‘Yes, we are all ok, we are fine.’ And I said we would call back later because I could tell she was in shock, you know,” she recalled Friday.

July 14 was Bastille Day, normally a day of picnics and parades to celebrate France’s independence.

“Exactly like the Fourth of July. It’s a national holiday,” she said.

But that date will now be remembered for a different reason.

It comes just 8 months after the attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, and 18 months after two gunmen killed 11 people at the headquarters of a weekly French newspaper in Paris.

However, Regis and Annette Bonnart disagree with the prime minister’s call for more armed police. They instead suggesting better monitoring of potential terrorists.

“I think intelligence, phone tapping, is the key,” said Regis. “I hope it’s gonna be the last time, I hope, because it’s been really a very bad tragedy.”

Even though ties to terror groups are still in question, the Bonnart’s believe France is targeted by extremists largely for what it represents, freedom and equality.

They also point out that there are an estimated 4 million Muslims in France, due to the influx of Muslims from French colonies in northern Africa over the course of several decades.

They are quick to say that most Muslims in France are peaceful. However, they believe others have become radicalized through social media and the internet.