"The dread began to fill me when I heard the sirens. Too loud. Then I saw the columns of fire trucks. Too many. Something wasn't right," writes Valery Hache, AFP's photographer based in the French Riviera city of Nice.

"It was a few days after the end of the Euro, when we all took a collective sigh of relief. But nothing happened, so after the final we all left Paris for our respective homes relaxed, looking forward to the summer holiday season."