Countries that participated in the first World War have commemorated those who fought and died in the conflict which ended 90 years ago today.
The Armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiegne to end the first World War, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.
France and Germany held a joint commemoration at Verdun - the site of the longest and possibly bloodiest of all the first World War battles.
But a glaring absentee at the ceremony was German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who decided not to attend, reportedly because she was offended because the event had been shifted from Paris to the site of one of the most notorious German assaults on French lines.
It was the first time that the main French Armistice Day commemoration had taken place there, on Mr Sarkozy’s instructions.
He wanted more direct acknowledgement of a monumental 10-month battle in which more than a quarter of a million French soldiers were killed and about one million on all sides wounded.
At the end, in December 1916, there had been virtually no strategic gain for the Germans.
Today the bones of about 300,000 French and German victims are on display at the imposing ossuary in Douaumont, on the outskirts of Verdun.
Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche represented the Government at today's ceremony, where the sacrifice of all those who died, including some 30,000 Irish people, was remembered.
French dignitaries were joined by Lady Quentyn Bryce, the Governor-General of Australia, the Presidents of the European Commission and the European Parliament, José Manuel Barroso and Hans Gert Pottering.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana was also present - but in Ms Merkel’s absence Germany was represented by the president of the German senate Peter Muller.
In his speech on the steps of the ossuary, after relighting the Eternal Flame in memory of the dead, Mr Sarkozy made a point of embracing Germany as part of an emotional ceremony.
“If we are reunited here, where once a president of the French Republic stood hand in hand with a German Chancellor [a reference to Helmut Kohl], it is not to celebrate the war, it is not even to celebrate the victory of one side over the other.
“If we are reunited, it is first to pay homage to all those who fought until the bitter end with patriotism in their hearts and in the belief they were defending a just cause.”
Mr Sarkozy said the first World War did not just touch the lives of millions of men, women and children - it had been the first to threaten the very idea of humanity.
He said France would never forget the English, Scottish and Irish soldiers who fought on French soil in the way they would have fought on the soil of their own countries.
Over 200,000 Irish people took part in the war and an estimated 30,000 Irish men died during the conflict.
Minister of State Martin Mansergh laid a wreath at Armistice Day ceremonies at the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, which commemorates the names of nearly 50,000 soldiers who died in the war but who have no known graves.
War historian John Wort, who helped establish a multi-memorial Garden of Remembrance in Thurles, said the bravery of Irish soldiers was finally being recognised after decades of indifference.
“Irish men were fighting for the British in the first World War while we were under occupation by them - so that was always going to be controversial and divide people’s opinions,” he said.
“It is a sign of maturity of a nation that we can finally remember our war dead - because they were all Irish citizens, no matter what side they fought on, and for those who died, it brought generations of grief and sadness to families.”
Fallen Irish soldiers were also honoured at a cross-Border commemoration service in Drogheda, Co Louth earlier this month.
Three of the last surviving members of British forces who served in the war attended a ceremony today in London.
The three men, all born during the reign of Queen Victoria, are due to be present at the Cenotaph in Whitehall to record the day peace returned in 1918 after four years of war that left 10 million dead on all sides.
Henry Allingham (112), Harry Patch (110) and Bill Stone (108) represented the British armed services they belonged to during a two-minute silence starting at 11am.
Agencies