When Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut following the August 4 explosion that eviscerated the city’s port and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes around it, his words were familiar: “Whenever there is doubt in your minds, remind yourself that we are here,” he declared, standing in front of La Residence des Pins, the sprawling historic mansion owned by the French government in the heart of the Lebanese capital, earlier this month. “Whenever you have a fight that is worth fighting, we will stand by your side,” he continued. But despite the kaleidoscope of Lebanese factionalism, what exactly was meant by “your side” was not stipulated.

The French president began his one-day appearance by traipsing the Armageddon-like scenes on Rue Gouraud. Named after the French general who proclaimed Lebanon as a state a hundred years ago, the uber-trendy street lined with sidewalk cafés, bistros, and bars was built in France’s image, even down to the street grid. (Only a few blocks away, Beirut’s Place D’Etoile follows the blueprint of its Parisian counterpart, as is the case in many other French colonial cities.)

It was these very neighborhoods, some of the richest and most liberal in Lebanon, that were most utterly wrecked by the explosion earlier this month — not the inner-city hinterland, or “poverty belt,” marked by crowded slums and refugee camps, where violence is more often seen and expected. The blast that claimed 177 souls and injured 6,000 others is widely believed to have been caused by multiple levels of bureaucratic incompetence and criminal negligence.