French President Emmanuel Macron led the Bastille Day celebrations as crowds packed the streets of Paris for the annual parade.
This year’s event showcased European defence co-operation and flags of the 10 countries of the European Intervention Initiative, a joint military pact created last year, headed Sunday’s parade down the Champs Elysees.
The display included more than 4,000 armed forces, 69 planes and 39 helicopters – but the biggest crowd-pleaser was a French soldier rocketing through the air on a flyboard device, the invention of French former jet-skiing champion Franky Zapata.