Pictures and a video clip of Thai women and their families gathering in Paris near the Eiffel Tower to express their love for His Majesty the King - and appealing for unity in Thailand - made a splash on the Internet last week.
Pictures of Eurasian children holding "I love Thailand" signs were well received. Even Thai media picked the story up and featured it in their news reports.
The brain behind this gathering on May 1 was Pattarine Fontaine. A 44-year-old mother of three, she said she felt motivated to take a stand after seeing the bloody fighting in Silom.
"That was where I grew up, where I worked, where my life was. I couldn't believe my eyes that it had turned into a combat zone," she said.
It was not just that incident that moved her. Pattarine said she has been closely following news about Thailand from both news websites and social media like Facebook and Twitter for months. The images and stories broke her heart. She felt the hatred, misunderstanding and mistrust in her troubled homeland.
"So I felt I needed to do something for my country. As a Thai living abroad, I wanted to show how much I love the King and the country. I thought of arranging a gathering and sending this message back to Thailand," she said.
Pattarine shared the idea with her children, who enthusiastically joined hands. They drew signs and pictures. Her eldest daughter, 13-year-old Audrey Fontaine, agreed to do the filming.
Pattarine also shared her idea with close friends, including Panithane Tabourel, president of the Thai Women's Association in France, who fully supported the idea. Panithane helped by approaching the police and asking for permission for a gathering in a public place.
The French police were cooperative and sent some of their force to oversee security at the event.
While spreading the news and asking people to participate, Pattarine found it was a big task to convince people. Some were afraid to express their opinions in public. Some argued that loving the King and the country was enough if done via a computer screen. Some Thais even warned her not to express her opinion at such a chaotic time in Thai politics. But Pattarine was strong. "I told them it is exactly at this time that we need to express our opinion," she said.
On the afternoon of May 1, at Ecole Militaire, Place Joffre, Champ de Mars, next to the peace monument in the heart of Paris, nearly 50 people joined the event, including French husbands of Thai women. The group read their declaration calling for unity, rule of law and non-violent solutions.
The event came around the same time a group of Thais in Washington DC staged a similar gathering.
"It simply shows that despite being far away from home, we do care and love our King and our country," Pattarine said.
She and her friends also plan to stage other activities in the future, she said, such as asking children to paint or write greeting cards to His Majesty the King.