Apple support as expected was pretty fucking useless. So I have no clue what happened to my Paris photos, but on the other hand Google photos somehow had a copy of it - and it probably has it because I had created a shared album and put them there. It has retained photos and videos in those albums. Phew! Also a lesson learnt that I cannot trust iCloud to manage my photos, at all. A backup solution is necessary (and I do have amazon photos as well!) but a good idea to keep checking past photos. As for apple, they wish-washed their “cant do nothing about it now” way.