From the offices of Le Figaro to the workshops of Montreuil, from the aristocratic salons of Neuilly to the iron-wrought balconies of Marseille, one topic consumed the French imagination.
The Provisional Government's draft budget.
It was not merely a fiscal document.
It was a promise, an attempt to bind the wounds of the past year with numbers and percentages, to translate revolution into spreadsheets and hope into allocations.
And everywhere, people responded.
At the Grand Hôtel in Vichy, a gathering of landowners and industrial magnates convened in a paneled salon beneath chandeliers dulled by cigar smoke.
The Société des Intérêts Nationaux had called for an emergency session.
The attendees, dressed in quiet elegance, carried portfolios heavy with annotated budget proposals.
Maréchal Moreau's draft budget lay before them.
₣100 billion focused on reconstruction, modernization, defense, agriculture, welfare, colonial investment, financial stabilization, and national pride.
