Four French journalists taken hostage in Syria were reunited with family and colleagues on Sunday in an emotional homecoming after 10 months in captivity during which they were chained together and held in dingy basements.

Looking thin and tired but overjoyed, the men hugged relatives and colleagues waiting at an air base southwest of Paris where they flew in early Sunday from Turkey.

"It was a long haul, but we never lost hope," said radio reporter Didier Francois, who, like the rest of the group, had shaved the long beard he grew in captivity before the reunion at the Villacoublay base.

"From time to time, we got snatches of information, we knew that the world was mobilised," said Francois, 53, an experienced and highly respected war reporter for Europe 1 radio.

Francois said the conditions of their captivity had been "tough". We "stayed 10 whole months in basements without ever seeing daylight", including a month and a half with "all of us chained together", he said.

"In a country at war things are not always simple, when it comes to food, water, electricity, sometimes things were a bit hairy, the fighting was close by."

President Francois Hollande said it was "a day of joy for France" as he met the four men at Villacoublay, where they were due to undergo medical checks.

Francois and photographer Edouard Elias, 23, were taken north of the main northern Syrian city of Aleppo on June 6.

Nicolas Henin, a 37-year-old reporter for Le Point magazine, and freelance photographer Pierre Torres, 29, were seized two weeks later, also in the north of the country, at Raqqa.