340,000 in anti-gay marriage demo

Hundreds of thousands of people have converged on the Eiffel Tower to protest against the French president’s plan to legalise gay marriage and thus allow same-sex couples to adopt and conceive children.

The opposition to president Francois Hollande’s plan has underscored divisions among the secular-but-Catholic French, especially more traditional rural areas versus urban enclaves. But while polls show the majority of French still support legalising gay marriage, that backing gets more lukewarm when the issue of conceiving and raising children comes into play.