Blue, white and red

Today, Francois Hollande declared a national homage to the victims of the Paris terror attacks, inviting the French to decorate their homes in red, white and blue. We are not French but we feel deeply touched by events that happened since we consider ourselves - after all - a part of Paris. I do not own a French flag but rather than rushing out and buying one, my version of hanging a tricolour flag out the window today - as encouraged by the French president - are the pictures I have taken this week around the sites where the attacks took place two weeks ago.

I visited the Place de la Republique and rue Alibert and initially had decided not to post any photos on my blog. This journey across Paris on a cold, rainy autumn day was personal and suppose to bring some sort of closure, an attempt to understand how such a terrible attack on life could take place. It is merely impossible to make sense of it and as I wondered around the bronze statute of Marianne, the personification of the French Republican, holding aloft an olive branch in her right hand and resting her left on a tablet engraved with "Droits de l'homme", I caught glimpses of other bystanders similarly emotional and searching to comprehend just like me.

As I start spotting French flags hanging from the windows around town today, emotions start rising and the urge to "do" something surfaces again, to manifest my solidarity, to protest against violence, to overcome the feeling of being threatened.

Therefore, I will post my photos on this blog... in remembrance of the victims, hoping that - somehow, somewhere - they can see what a difference their loss of life has made in this world!