France, Sept. 24 -- Even before Leo has set foot on French soil, his smiling face is appearing on newsstands.

He adorns the cover of this week's Paris Match magazine, pointing a friendly finger under a headline describing him as the pope who wants to win over France.

The weekly reports that 800,000 people have signed up to meet, greet or simply listen to him - whether at the Stade de France north of Paris on Friday or at mass on the Champs-Elysees on Saturday. Leo XIV's beaming face is on several French magazine covers.

France is not an obvious choice for the head of the Catholic Church and its estimated 1.4 billion faithful.

Less than a third of the population now describe themselves as Catholic and only around 5 percent say they are...