GRAVE AND GAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 67, 19 March 1915, Page 7

GRAVE AND GAY.

I ■-' ■ ■ ■ m — ■■■ ■ PARIS OF TO-DAY. "What is the spirit of France to-day? Has her large gaiety gonet Has she as- | similated some of the phlegm of her British Allies, or is she the same volatile nation as of yore?" i These questions were put to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Sale, who arrived at I Fremantle from Europe by the Mai wa lat the beginning- of la*t week. Thebishop paid many visits to France I during the past few months, He was | there in the comparative calm of June. He journeyed over in July, when the nation was burninjr with rumours of war. He again visited the country just after the Germans had bfcen driven back from the ilarne. He is, therefore, in a position to make comparisons. "The spirit of France." he said, "is hard to define. Tlie fir.-it impression one gets of present day Paris, for instance, is that there is no population there, and that there is no business doing; but there is no feeling of national depression. The wonderful French people arc grave and gay in turns. "On the Sunday after the retreat from the Marne I visited a number of churches, particularly Notre Dame i Cathedral. The worshippers were I nearly all men. They semed to be all subdued, as overcome, with the seriousness of things. That same afternoon II went out to the trenches which had* been prepared for miles by French soldiers in anticipation that* the Germans would bombard Paris. Near the trenches was a racecourse, and thousands of Parisians, were taking their I pleasure there."