Huge crowd turns out for pope's visit to Paris

Tens of thousands of faithful have turned out for Pope Benedict XVI's outdoor Mass in Paris.

Tens of thousands of faithful have turned out for Pope Benedict XVI's outdoor Mass in Paris.

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Benedict was being driven in his pope-mobile through the French capital's boulevards with the crowd singing hymns.

The late-morning Mass on the vast Esplanade des Invalides is Benedict's only public appearance today before he flies to Lourdes to make a pilgrimage to the shrine which draws millions of pilgrims each year.

Benedict is expected to give a kind of papal pep talk to the faithful at Mass. Although traditionally Roman Catholic, France has seen a decline in church-going.

Paris police have estimated that 170,000 people have flocked to the Mass. Tens of thousands, many of them young people, had camped out on the field overnight.