POPE BENEDICT XVI arrived in France yesterday for a four-day pastoral visit.
The 81-year-old pontiff picked his way carefully down the steps of the aircraft at Orly airport - his eyes damaged from too much reading.
He was met on the tarmac by president Nicolas Sarkozy and the first lady, the former top model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The couple, who married seven months ago, held hands while waiting for the pope's arrival.
Pope Benedict speaks perfect French, which he learned as a schoolboy in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. In a private meeting at the Élysée Palace, he and Mr Sarkozy discussed the crisis in Georgia, the fate of Christians in the Middle East and the appointment of a new French ambassador to the Vatican.
"I love France, the great French culture, the great cathedrals," a cheerful pope enthused in front of television cameras in the plane that brought him to Paris.
Though two-thirds of France's population of 60 million consider themselves Catholic, only five million practice their religion.
"The pope knows the French are de-Christianised, secularised," said a Vatican source. "He sees this visit as an investment that will pay off after he's gone. And he knows France has influence in the world."
In speeches at the Élysée, both leaders talked about secularism. The French president said his ideal of "positive secularism" - which critics fear threatens the separation of church and state - is "an invitation to dialogue, tolerance and respect".
After his speech, the pope shook hands with members of Mr Sarkozy's government, including justice minister Rachida Dati, whose parents were Muslims, and who is a single woman expecting her first child.
Representatives of the Orthodox, Protestant and Eastern Uniate churches attended a vespers service conducted by Pope Benedict in Notre Dame Cathedral last night.
Some 8,000 worshippers, mostly young people selected by Church officials, watched the service on giant screens in the square in front of the cathedral - fewer than the number who attended a Mass in homage to John Paul II three years ago.
Youths wearing crucifixes told reporters they had come more for the symbol than for Pope Benedict. "We don't hear him speak often. He's mysterious. I want to learn what he expects of us," said one young man.
"The young are my main preoccupation," the pope said in his speech earlier. "Sometimes cast aside, often left to their own devices, they are fragile and must confront alone a reality they cannot cope with."
The young people had sleeping bags for an overnight vigil of prayer and singing. They will march in a procession along the Seine this morning to the Esplanade des Invalides, where Pope Benedict will celebrate Mass for 250,000 people.