Paris ? Families of New York firefighters killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack are on a dazzling visit to Paris: a boat ride on the Seine, an elegant reception at the top of the Eiffel Tower, dinner on the Champs-Elysees.

They say they are enjoying themselves up to a point. Behind all the fanfare always lies the painful personal losses that brought them here.

“Bittersweet is the only way you can describe it,” Geraldine Halderman, who lost her firefighter son David Halderman, said on Saturday. “The reason we’re here is so sad.”

Halderman, 68, of Brentwood, N.Y., is one of 75 family members and a handful of New York firefighters on a 12-day visit to France as guests of the Paris Fire Brigade. The FDNY lost 343 members in the World Trade Center assault.

At a ceremony at the Paris Fire Brigade headquarters, French officials praised the FDNY for courage and dedication and expressed sympathy for families of the fallen.

“The psychological shock that we felt turned into a great feeling of admiration for our American counterparts,” said the chief of the Paris firefighters, Gen. Jacques Debarnot.

Later Saturday, the group was feted at Paris City Hall.

Today, the families were to attend a parade marking Bastille Day.