’Flowers Beat Guns’: Father Reassures Son after Paris Attacks

Local Editor

A video of a French father explaining to his son the aftermath of the Paris attacks has gone viral with 8.7 million views.

In the video, the father is explaining to his son the significance of the tributes at the Bataclan theatre while being interviewed by the TV program, Le Petit Journal.

Viewed over 8 million times, the video has since been translated from French and shared globally.

Asked about what he understood of the Paris attacks and why it happened, the little boy said it is clear the suicide bombers meant to harm.

"Yes, because they're really, really mean," he said in French, without pause into the reporter's microphone.
"Bad guys. [They] are not very nice."

He pauses, with intense emotion on his face, before saying, "and we have to be really careful because we have to change houses."

However, the father reassures him, saying that there is no need to move out saying that "France is our home."
But the son feels the need to correct his father with a dose of reality.

"But there's bad guys daddy...they have guns, they can shoot us because they're really, really mean."

The father is quick to reply with words of comfort" "It's ok, they might have guns but we have flowers."

Not content to let that go unchallenged, the son is quick to question: "But flowers don't do anything, they're for, they're for..."

The father urges the son to look at the scene around them of people laying tributes.

"Of course they do, look, everyone is putting flowers. It's to fight against guns. It's to remember the people who are gone yesterday."

Coming to his own moment of realization, the young boy concludes: "The flowers and the candles are here to protect us."

Social media users described the interaction as heartwarming, with praise for both father and son in finding the right words to explain the tragedy.

"So innocent and the response with the flowers made me cry there is no better answer," Ptigwenn Paranthoën posted.

"Congratulations to the Dad for such touching responses. It is important to explain to children what is happening," Cléa Molette posted. "I myself saw the flowers beat the guns."

Overwhelmed by the responses, the father of the boy thanked well-wishers for their warm words.

Responding with a post of his own, he said seeing the messages of support made him proud to be French.

"This is when I see all this support that I said one thing: I am proud to be French and proud of my compatriots!!! My family and I embrace you."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team