French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S counterpart Donald Trump marked France's national day together on Friday at a military parade that showcased their warming relations.
Macron invited Trump to be his guest of honor at the pomp-filled military parade down the Champs-Elysees which the two men watched with their wives, the AFP reported.
The Bastille Day celebrations were also tinged with mourning, one year on since a vicious Islamist attack in the Mediterranean city of Nice where a man drove a truck into a crowd, killing 86 people.
The Paris parade this year marked the centenary of the United States entering World War I in 1917 and was set to feature 63 planes, 29 helicopters, 241 horses and 3,720 soldiers.
Macron, standing in a jeep surrounded by dozens of republican guardsmen on horseback, smiled and waved to the crowds amassed along the Champs-Elysees as he arrived for the parade.
"This is a wonderful national celebration," Trump said at a joint news conference with Macron on Thursday, adding: "We look very much forward to it. Spectacular."
"Our two nations are forever joined together by the spirit of revolution and the fight for freedom," he added.
Macron rolled out the red carpet for Trump's two-day visit, hoping to improve relations and persuade the US president to change his mind about withdrawing from the global Paris agreement on climate change.
The warm body language between the two leaders evident in Paris was at odds with broader concerns about the transatlantic relationship since Trump's election victory in November last year.
The Trumps and Macrons enjoyed a "dinner between friends" on Thursday at a Michelin-starred restaurant on the Eiffel Tower, enjoying beef with truffle sauce and warm strawberry and yogurt sorbet.
Trump also said Thursday that the bond between the US and France, as well as the friendship between him and Macron, was "unbreakable."
France has been under a state of emergency since November 2015, when 130 people were slaughtered in a wave of coordinated violence across Paris, with French lawmakers voting last week to extend it for the sixth time.
More than 130,000 security and emergency service workers have been deployed to protect revelers during this year's Bastille Day celebrations, according to figures from France's interior ministry.
Terror attacks in France have killed more than 300 people since January 2015, with Interior Minister Gerard Collomb saying seven terror plots have been foiled since the start of this year.