PARIS IN THE SPRING: Apathy, Ennui & Pleasant Pique-Niques

From Paris, where France was in its fourth week without a government, TIME Correspondent Godfrey Blunden cabled:

PRESIDENT Reneé Coty's black Renault drives up the Champs-Elyseées between lightly foliaged plane trees to the Arc de Triomphe. The crowd, thinly hugging the barriers, applauds mildly. The Republic is still worth a handclap, and 76-year-old President Coty, typifying today's worried "ordinary Frenchman," is worth several.

But what is that other noise? Jeering whistles, faint calls of "Vive De Gaulle!" It is the first time such sounds have fallen on the ears of the respected...

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