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France observed the first of three national days of mourning on Saturday, with flags flying at half-staff in many cities and moments of silence held nationwide.

It is the third time President François Hollande has declared days of mourning since the Charlie Hebdo attacks that left 17 dead in January 2015. Three days of national mourning were declared after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, when 130 were killed.

Moments of silence were observed, sometimes spontaneously, in front of City Halls, war memorials and monuments.

Before Canne’s war memorial on Saturday, about 20 miles east of Nice, Mayor David Lisnard called on residents to “express their support to the families and the Nice population and reaffirm French resistance to Islamist terrorism,” Nice Matin reported.

In Arras, a town of 41,000 in northern France, Mayor Frédéric Leturque told a crowd of hundreds gathered before the city’s belfry that the attack during tourist season hit not only Nice, “but the entire world.”

In Paris, candles were lit and flowers were laid at the Place de la République as Parisians gathered on Friday to pay tribute to the 84 victims of the Nice attack.

A renown jazz festival in Juan-les-Pins, 15 miles east of Nice, was called off from Friday to Monday, as were events in Cannes on Friday.

Special events in the southwest of France went on as planned, but with additional security. Thousands were expected to attend a performance by Pharrell Williams in Biarritz on Saturday evening.

Other festivals have found ways to pay tribute to the Nice victims. At the Avignon Theater Festival, the audience applauds each time text written by the organizers is read onstage.

“In the face of those who want to silence us, we offer not to hold a minute’s silence but to applaud together life and its forces,” one text read.

Religious ceremonies were held in Nice on Friday. In Paris, Notre Dame Cathedral scheduled a Mass for July 17 to commemorate the victims.