Ingrid Betancourt has been greeted by President Nicolas Sarkozy at an airbase near Paris following her release from a six-year hostage ordeal.
Applause broke out as the 46-year-old, dressed in a dark suit, walked down the steps from the plane to embrace Mr Sarkozy and French first lady Carla Bruni.
She was followed by her daughter Melanie, 22, and son Lorenzo, 19, who were flown to Bogota from Paris and reunited with their mother yesterday.
She said she owed her life to France, as President Sarkozy gave her a hero's welcome.
'I have shed many tears of pain and indignation. Today I am crying with joy,' Ms Betancourt, who also has French nationality, told the crowd waiting at the Villacoublay airbase.
'I am so happy to breathe the air of France. I owe France everything.'
Ms Betancourt has also been invited to meet with Pope Benedict XVI next week at the Vatican.
The former Colombian presidential candidate described her release in a bloodless operation by the Colombian army as a 'miracle of the Virgin Mary'.
'I was in chains all the time, 24 hours a day, for three years,' Ms Betancourt told French radio Europe 1, before boarding the plane for Paris following her release on Wednesday from captivity in the Colombian jungle.
Ms Betancourt, who has duel French-Colombian nationality, confirmed she suffered moments of 'real crisis, hardship and abuse' at the hands of Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels.
Asked whether she was tortured, she replied 'Yes, yes.'
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas seized the former Colombian senator in February 2002 while she was campaigning for the presidency.
She was freed in an army operation along with three US hostages and 11 Colombians.
