It is not alone the debt you incurred when your great grandfathers fought for liberty, and to help them, France sent soldiers, ships and two great generals, Rochambeau and La Fayette.

You owe France for that, but since then you have incurred other debts.
"Though you may never have visited France, her art, literature, her discoveries in Science, her sense of what is beautiful, whether in a bonnet, a boulevard or a triumphal arch, have visited you.

For them you are the happier; and for them also, to France you are in debt.
"If you have visited Paris, then your debt is increased a hundred fold.
For to whatever part of France you journeyed, there you found courtesy, kindness, your visit became a holiday, you departed with a sense of renunciation; you were determined to return.

And when after the war, you do revisit France, if your debt is unpaid, can you without embarrassment sink into debt still deeper?
What you sought Paris gave you freely.

Was it to study art or to learn history, for the history of France is the history of the world; was it to dine under the trees or to rob the Rue de la Paix of a new model; was it for weeks to motor on the white roads or at a cafe table watch the world pass?
Whatever you sought, you found.