Côte d’Azur

The Côte d’Azur is the southern French coast where Grace Lawson first met Jack Lawson. Their meeting, thirteen years before the present events, becomes the point of origin for a marriage whose past remains unsettled when Grace later encounters an old photograph of Jack as a young man.

Setting and First Meeting

Grace was studying art at the University of Paris after enrolling there in the aftermath of the traumatic night that had left her with lasting injuries. During a break from her studies, she was lying in the sun on the Côte d’Azur when she met Jack for the first time. The coast is thus remembered not only as a place of escape from the publicity surrounding that night, but also as the setting of a decisive encounter in Grace’s life.

The Coast in Grace’s Memory

Thirteen years later, Grace studies a photograph that may show Jack when he was young. She had not known him at that age, and the image offers only a partial view: a profile, longer hair, glasses, and an adolescent-thin beard. Recognition depends less on a clear likeness than on his stance, the tilt of his head, and his expression. Against the memory of meeting him on the Côte d’Azur, the photograph makes their shared past feel both intimate and incomplete.