San Francisco Frontiers - 'He said hello': Families pray with pope on Paris avenue

"He said hello to you," said her 43-year-old mother Michelle Gomis, beaming, after the popemobile drove past.

They were among an estimated 800,000 faithful who lined the Champs Elysees and adjoining streets in Paris on Saturday to welcome the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics for a giant open-air mass.

"It's such a joy for us to see the pope," said the French mother-of-three of Senegalese origin, before settling down on a blanket with her family to listen to mass on the high-end shopping avenue's sidewalk.

Just an hour earlier, the excitement had built up ahead of the main Paris event of the first official papal visit to the European nation in 18 years.

Agathe Chateau Frilloux sprinted down a long road parallel to the Champs Elysee, her daughter and son running close behind, only just making it to their designated gate before the set cut-off time.

"The door closed just behind us," said the Catholic from the southeastern city of Lyon, catching her breath elated, before they headed into the crowd.

Helicopters could be heard flying overhead as worshippers waved small yeallow-and-white Vatican flags by the side of the avenue.

"Hallelujah, hallelujah," sang a group of volunteers in yellow t-shirts.

- 'Dear families' -

Parents had arrived equipped with sandwiches, books, playing cards and colouring paper to entertain their children during the wait for the pope on his way to a makeshift alter down the road.

Jeanne de Montagnac, 29, stood by her husband and two-year-old daughter, perched on his shoulders with a telephone number scribbled in biro pen on her arm.

"We're happy that, even if she won't remember it, we're sharing this with her," she said, a small golden cross around her neck.

"It's an important moment for us."

As mass got underway, loudspeakers set up just outside a designer clothes shop blasted the hymns a choir sang at Place de la Concorde, almost two kilometres (1.2 miles) away.

People sitting on the pavement hugged their knees, dropping their heads as they listened to the pope's voice echo across the Champs Elysees.

Others perched on the wall surrounding the elevator exit of a closed-off metro station.

"I think of you, dear families, who, despite the many difficulties you face each day, persevere courageously in your vocation and mission," Pope Leo said.

As he spoke, mothers in the back rows swayed from side to side, hugging exhausted toddlers who had missed nap time.

A child wriggled screaming out of her father's arms, just after the pope said "Peace be upon you" and the avenue fell silent.

- 'Stark contrast' -

Tiphaine Plattard, 32, walked out of the crowd behind a boy in tears, patiently settling him down for a rest in a pushchair.

She and her husband had driven two hours to Paris to bring their five children, aged one to six, to see Pope Leo, she said.

"It's a challenge," said the nuclear engineer.

But "it's important for us to pass this on to them."

She said her two-metre (6.5-feet) tall husband had hoisted two of the children towards the sky, while she carried another so they could get a glimpse of Pope Leo.

"It's such a privilege, it's extraordinary," she said of hearing "hallelujah" sung across the famed avenue.

Her husband Antoine, a head hunter who turns 35 on Sunday, said it was his first time seeing the pope as an adult.

"What the Pope is telling us is that what matters is spiritual nourishment, and not the materialism that is so prevalent today," he said, outside a luxury jewelry store.

"We were standing in front of a shop selling necklaces costing 15,000 euros. It's quite a stark contrast," he added.

J.Martinez--SFF