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Partially eclipsed by the glitterati of Cannes and the royalglare of Monaco, Nice is a place where even the brightest stars _like Brangelina _ are greeted by little more than indifference.

Only the presence of paparazzi outside the seaside hospitalwhere Angelina Jolie is waiting to give birth to twins gives anyindication that the star is in the seaside resort in SouthernFrance.

The Cote d'Azur has long been the playground of the rich andfamous. Elton John, Bono and Brigitte Bardot are among the starswith houses in the region. But Nice likes to think of itself asmore down-to-earth than its celebrity-crazed neighbors.

"Of course it is less glamorous. It's more for activepeople, people who love art, sport and gastronomy," saidtourism bureau spokeswoman Isabelle Billey Quere. "It's areal town," she said, with a university, France's largestairport and largest art collection outside of Paris, 7.5 miles ofshoreline _ and a population that has grown accustomed to thearrival of foreigners and celebrities from at least the mid-19thcentury.

There are no gaggles of autograph-seekers waiting to catch aglimpse of Brad Pitt as he comes and goes, and just a handful ofEnglish-speaking tourists held their cell phones aloft in anattempt to snap photos of two of the couple's children leavingthe hospital on Thursday. Jolie herself is on the fifth-floor withtinted windows _ affording her privacy along with a fabulous viewof the Mediterranean.

The constant flow of celebrities through the Riviera alsocontributes to the blase reception, said Nancy Wilson, assistanteditor of the English-language Riviera Reporter and correspondentfor People magazine.

"But I think all the French have this attitude, thatcelebrities' private lives are their own concern, and thatcelebrities are no better than them," Wilson said."French people are very proud, especially the women, who arevery sexy and confident; they see Angelina Jolie and don'taspire to be her."

No one is more surprised than the Nicois that Jolie and Pittchose their city _ and a regular maternity ward where normalcitizens go to have their babies.

When their daughter Shiloh was born in 2006, the couple went allthe way to the African nation Namibia, where the governmentshielded their privacy by requiring journalists seeking to coverthe birth to have written permission from the couple to obtain avisa and ringing the couple's luxury hotel with heavysecurity.

In Southern France, a strong culture of respect for privacyseems to have had nearly the same effect.

"(Celebrities) love Nice because they can be anonymoushere, not like Monaco or Cannes. They can go around town and no onetries to approach them. It is very easy for them," said MyriamChokairy, the international press spokeswoman for the tourismoffice.

Just last week, Chokairy said her brother ran into Tony Parkerand Eva Longoria at their neighborhood pharmacy.

"They were regular customers. No one bothered them,"she said.

Jolie and Pitt and their four children _ including their adoptedchildren Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3 _ have been settling into anew home in Correns, in the Provence region, about 60 miles fromthe Lenval clinic where Jolie arrived Sunday. Her doctor said shewill remain in the hospital until she gives birth "in thecoming weeks."

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