Le Grand Tourist

THE PACIFIC

Any senior citizen on a round-the-world tour needs to set aside some time for idleness. Last week Charles de Gaulle, nearing the end of an odyssey that b gan three weeks ago in riotous Djibouti, took time out as the Senior Citizen of France in its island colonies in the blue Pacific. In Noumea, capital of New Caledonia in the Coral Sea, he largely confined himself to an avuncular speech in Coconut Square. Then he touched down at the curious condominium of New Hebrides, jointly run since 1906 by the French and the British. French officials in crisp kepis stood side by side with their British counterparts in pith helmets as De Gaulle, without a flinch, cried: "Vive la France, Vive le Royaume Uni!"

In the Polynesian paradise of Tahiti, le grand tourist really let go. Aboard a navy cutter in Papeete Bay, De Gaulle perched his spectacles on his ample nose as outrigger canoes bearing lovely Polynesian girls passed in review. At a tamaaraa, the traditional Tahitian feast, the general sampled all the specialties: spinach with pork from earthen ovens, breadfruit, cooked bananas in coconut cream sauce. Everywhere, he plunged with a balance of glee and gravity into the smiling crowds shaking hands, and more than once was draped with leis and bussed by dusky native beauties in return.

"It's coming to an end," De Gaulle wistfully mused within earshot of a local mayor at a luncheon. Indeed it had to, for the President of France had one final bit of sightseeing on his agenda: witnessing the explosion of a French nuclear device hung from a balloon over the French test site at Mururoa. If the prevailing winds were right, De Gaulle at week's end hoped to end his tour with a bang before setting off for Guadeloupe and home.

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