...just coming back to the dorm from dinner, when a classmate came running to tell me “Somebody shot your President!” We listened to whatever radio we could find, but the news from across the Atlantic was confused, contradictory -- it was not clear what his situation was.
Later, as I was trying to study, the Dorm Master came in to tell us “President Kennedy is dead.” Silently, I rose from my desk and went to my room. The next morning, the dozen American students had all twisted black socks around our arms in sign of mourning.
I can never forget.
Another thing -- I was impressed by how shocked, how moved, everybody in France was, too. They really liked JFK, and especially liked Jackie -- because they were young, good looking, a new generation...
To see that promise cut down was a shock to Frenchmen and women still recovering from WW II. In fact, the average French citizen is well aware of the role America played in the liberation of their country in 1945, and its growth thereafter. (The citizens remember, even if the various governments choose to overlook it, for their own, transient, political reasons.)