FRANCE: Report from Mme. Chideu

Plump, pink-cheeked Mme. Chideu runs a little grocery store near the Cherbourg water front. Housewives who come in for fruit, milk, butter and vegetables love to gossip with the patronne over anything & everything, from the latest grapevine news to the capers of les americains. Last week TIME Correspondent William Walton walked into Mme. Chideu's shop. He asked her and some of her customers how things were going, came away with a human report on Allied fiscal policy in one corner of France.

Le cognac et I'amour. In Mme. Chideu's till, the purple-and-green invasion currency brought in by the Allies...

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