A touching and tearful goodbye from French TV news presenters

It's one of those moments that only live television can give the viewer; a presenter saying goodbye and being unable to hold back the tears.

That's exactly what happened at the end of Wednesday morning's programme on LCI, one of France's all-news channels.

Audrey Crespo-Mara and Jean François Rabilloud (screenshot from LCI video)

As the French media and entertainment news site Puremédias reports, emotions were running high as the team of Audrey Crespo-Mara and Jean François Rabilloud signed off at the end of the show.

More than that, after four years presenting together, it also marked the end of the partnership as, although Rabilloud still has a week left before the final show of the season and the beginning of the summer break, both are to be replaced in the autumn by Sylvia Amicone and Philippe Ballard.

As the pair alternately presented their adieus and thanked the editors, producers, studio technicians and just about anybody else they could think of, it all became too much for Crespo-Mara who had difficulty holding back her tears.

"My thanks to you my dear Jean-François," she said, turning to Rabilloud and using the informal "tu" form seldom heard among journalists on either television or radio.

"I've spent four marvellous years with you," she continued.

"And it has been the best experience in my professional life."

Rabilloud, clearly prepared for the occasion and certainly less demonstrative in his emotions appeared touched.

"Happy holidays and have a good summer," he said offering her a somewhat unglamourous but nonetheless thoughtful pot plant as a leaving gift."

"Here's a hortensia which will accompany you - my dear Audrey. I'll see you (the viewers) in a moment for the latest sports news."

A touching moment indeed in the usually hard-nosed world of journalism, proving that they too, are after all, just humans.

Emotion lors de la dernière matinale de LCI de la saison Vidéo LCIWAT sélectionnée dans Actualité

The far right pottiness of Marine Le Pen - it's all in the name

Heaven's above. The leader of France's far right Front National, Marine La Pen, really knows how to milk the media.

Marine Le Pen (Wikipedia, author Marie-Lan Nguyen)

Her latest declaration is that children born in France or those born outside of the country but who have obtained French nationality should carry a "proper" French name.

It has worked in the past and it would help those of foreign origin to integrate better according to Le Pen.

She was talking to future journalists from one of the country's top journalism schools the Centre de formation des journalistes (CFJ) in Paris on YouTube's Election 2012 channel.

It's an initiative launched jointly by the CFJ, Agence France Presse and Twitter to allow candidates in next year's French presidential election to give their vision of the world and answer questions on a range of subjects.

Ah yes, La Pen and the rest of her dangerously loony friends on the far right of French politics have well and truly been given credibility by all elements of the mass media and the French are going to have to learn to live with it during campaigning for next year's elections.

Anyway, La Pen's vision of the world à la française quite unsurprisingly includes all children in this country having proper French names and none of those nonsense foreign ones.



Admittedly the question, supplied from Hélène from Paris (thank you Hélène) and which elicited Le Pen's typical "France for the French" response, was a bit of a leading one.

But there again Le Pen doesn't really need much encouragement (if any) to take the bait.

"Are you in favour of parents choosing 'French' names for their children born in France from among those appearing on the calendar (the so-called nameday custom in which every day of the year is associated with a given name)." she was asked.

"Yes, I'm in favour," she replied.

"It was one of the elements that worked extremely well throughout the history of France and allowed foreign communities to assimilate very quickly. It was the case for the Italians, the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Polish," she said.



"It's a very effective way of assimilating which isn't the case today whereby children are given foreign-sounding names under the pretext of trying to maintain a link with the country or culture of origin," she continued.

"It think it makes life more complicated for them and it doesn't help them fit in."

Oh well, that's that said. So it must be true.

Expect more of the same and worse over the next 10 months.

Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier - a year in captivity

It's a year since French journalists Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier were kidnapped in Afghanistan and events are being organised throughout France to mark the anniversary.

Screenshot from YouTube video paying hommage to the two journalists and their colleagues

On Tuesday the families of the two men were invited to the Élysée palace to watch a video sent by the captors to the French authorities and reportedly filmed in November.

It apparently showed the two men alive and "calm but emaciated".

Ghesquière and Taponier, staff journalists for the French public television station France 3, were taken captive, along with three Afghan colleagues - Mohammed Reza, Ghulam and Satar - as they were travelling in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province around 120 kilometres northeast of the capital Kabul.

While the French government has at various times issued statements insisting that negotiations for the release of the two men are progressing, they remain captive and their families have spoken to the media for the first time about their frustrations.

"When the foreign minister) Michele Alliot-Marie speaks of a 'short time', we say to ourselves it's imminent," Taponier's father Gérard told Agence France Presse,

"And then Christmas is already gone... We are still hoping for good news, but it gets you down."

It was a sentiment echoed by Taponier's brother, Thierry, who told Europe 1 radio that they had constantly been promised that things were moving but little seemed to happen.

"We're in a kind of limbo," he said.

"In spite of what government ministers and politicians have said, we have absolutely no idea what's happening there (in Afghanistan) and why things aren't advancing."


Thierry Taponier : "on est dans le flou"
envoyé par Europe1fr. - L'actualité du moment en vidéo.

To mark the anniversary of the two men being taken hostage, a rally will be held outside the Hôtel de Ville (Town hall) in Paris with a portrait of Ghesquière and Taponier being hung from the facade of the building and a candlelight vigil later in the day.

Similar rallies will take place in towns and cities across the country and in Montpellier, the home city of Taponier, a charity concert is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Over the past year the campaign to secure their release has been supported by colleagues, with a constant reminder of their captivity at the end of news bulletins, sports stars who appeared in a video clip appealing for their release, and some of the top names from the French music industry who participated in a free concert in Paris at the end of October.

There's a Comité de soutien (support committee) with a website keeping daily track of activities and reminding us all as to how long the two men have been held.

And you can sign an online petition (it's in French) should you wish to show your support.

Sports stars lend support to French hostages held in Afghanistan

Some of France's top sporting stars have lent their support to the two French journalists being held in Afghanistan.

It's now 268 days since Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier were kidnapped in Afghanistan.



The two men, staff journalists for the French public television station France 3, were taken captive, along with three Afghan colleagues - Mohammed Reza, Ghulam and Satar - as they were travelling in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province around 120 kilometres northeast of the capital Kabul.

That was back on December 29, 2009.

Although their plight might not be making the news headlines, it's certainly one that is not being forgotten and is in fact covered in every news broadcast on national public television in France.

At the end of every bulletin there's a reminder as to how long to the two men have been held and a thought shared by the presenter with the men and their families.

And this week a number of France's top sporting personalities - past and present - also lent their support to the campaign for the two men in a video clip broadcast on France 3 among them, Olympic gold medallist in canoëing Tony Estanguet, a member of France's 1998 World Cup winning team Emmanuel Petit and the captain of the national handball team, Jérôme Fernandez.

There is also an online petition and you can follow the link to sign.

Signer la petition

And lest people might forget about the two men, there's also an Internet site charting activities and reminding us all as to just how long they've been held.


Soutien aux journalistes otages place de la Bourse à Paris
envoyé par Nouvelobs. - Regardez les dernières vidéos d'actu.