Demonstration for Ingrid

I already mentioned Ingrid Betancourt several times on this blog. She's a Franco Columbian woman who got abducted by the Farc (a Columbian revolutionary movement) on February 23, 2002. To "celebrate" this anniversary, her support committee organized a giant human chain around the hotel de Ville (town hall). This year they emphasized the fact that not only Ingrid is being kept prisoner, but also many other hostages like these guys in the photo...

Ingrid is free

24 February 2008.


29 december 2007.


24 February 2006.

For the first time in PDP's history (I guess!) let me repost 3 photos; the ones I posted on various occasions to remind my visitors of Ingrid Betancourt, the Franco Colombian lady who was abducted by the Farc more than 6 years ago. Tonight we heard she was freed yesterday. I'm so happy, I could cry.

Will Ingrid be freed?

The quality of this photo is terrible - sorry for that - but I still decided to publish it because what matters here is the symbol. The lady on the screen is Ingrid Betancourt and she has been a hostage in Colombia for 6 years now (I already posted a photo about her, here)... The authorities often remind us of her, like you can see on this photo of the Parliament (Assemblée Nationale) where they installed a huge screen showing her. Recently there has been good hopes that she could be freed but so far, she is still a prisoner.

Libertad por Ingrid Betancourt

Ingrid Betancourt is a Franco-Colombian lady who ran for Presidency in Colombia in 2002. Unfortunately, on February 23, that same year, she got abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc, in French). Since then (that is, for 4 years now...), she is being kept prisoner somewhere in Colombia together with 4 000 other hostages. Yesterday, to make sure we would not forget about her, her committee organized a demonstration on the Pont des Arts (as shown on this shot). I also took these photos.

I had to stop!

I'm just back from a delightful dinner with "the bag hag", aka Ingrid Chua, the charming goddess of fashion accessories who happened to be in Paris, and on the way back I passed by the Pont du Carroussel, a bridge that leads to the Louvre Carroussel (where the pyramid is located) and even though I'm used to seeing this quite often (yes, I know, it's unfair LOL!) I could not help but taking another of these night shots. Surprisingly, the sky was clear, whereas it's been raining all day.

Fashion week, Paris

I'm not big on fashion; not that I don't look up to the talent of designers, but I'm just very foreign to this world. And though today, thanks to Ingrid Chua (aka "the bag hag"! that I met through PDP), I got to pay a visit to the showrooms of a few British designers. A fantastic moment. I took many photos of course (which you can see on the ParisDailyPhoto Youtube channel), including this one at Mary Katrantzou's showroom. One of the models was in a playing mood, so I played!

One more thought

I'm just back to Paris after a pretty tiring trip but I could not help going to the town hall where a lot of Parisians - and press - gathered to celebrate the release of the most famous French(/Colombian) hostage. I just saw a long interview of Ingrid on French television and I can tell you that this woman is really something; even after she's been treated like a dog (her words) for 2,321 days, she has the strength to say that she feels no hate for her abductors... Anyway I don't want to bore you with this story, especially since, like some of you mentioned it, there are still other people held by the FARC in the jungle. Let's also have a thought for the American hostages ( Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell) who landed in San Antonio today. They will celebrate the 4th of July in their homeland for the first time in 10 years...

Free, at last!

Unfortunately, it's not the first time I mentioned that some French people are held hostage somewhere in the world... (remember Ingrid Betancourt?). Well two of them (Stéphane Taponier et Hervé Ghesquière) have just been freed today after 547 days in Afghanistan, among the Talibans. I took this photo in September 2010, during a demonstration to support their cause, but never used it because I did not think that adding more publicity (even though PDP is not exactly CNN LOL!) would help. Now I'm glad to use it!