The French ambassador to Australia has backed air strikes in Syria and Iraq after a third terrorist attack in 18 months left his country reeling.
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More than 100 people gathered outside the French embassy in Yarralumla on Monday, joining the French ambassador Christophe Lecourtier, foreign dignitaries, and Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, for a minute of silence.
Sir Peter, who was in Paris on the eve of the Bastille Day attack, signed the condolence book and offered a quiet word to embassy staff after hearing a group sing the French anthem.
Mr Lecourtier said the French people were scared but "needed to be as resilient as we have in past times".
Following the attack in Nice last week, French president Francois Hollande indicated retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria as he extended the country's state of emergency another three months.
"As far as France is concerned, we know that in Syria and Iraq, there's a number of people that are planning attacks in Europe," Mr Lecourtier said.
"And they're doing that because they're losing the war.
"We need to strike more and more to defeat them, but it's of course only part of the solution. We will also strengthen the security of the country."
President of the ANU French Collective Sarah Edwards was in attendance for the minute of silence on Monday.
France held a close place in Ms Edwards's heart, as she described the connection she had with the nation after once having lived there.
"We are all really shocked and heartbroken," Ms Edwards said.
"I mean it is always horrible when something like this happens, but especially so recently after the attacks in November last year in Paris, leaving the country just devastated obviously, and so are we all as humans."
Ms Edwards was at the ceremony bearing a bouquet of flowers which she later laid beside the rest of the tributes, "to show our solidarity with the people of France".
Canberra poet and writer, Sue Donnelly, had returned to the embassy on Monday after visiting as soon as she heard about the horror in Nice last week.
"I wanted to be as close as I could," she said.
"I was lost in how people could do such evil to anyone. I can't even imagine it. I'm not French but it just breaks my heart."