In a german textbook in high school we had a short story the name and author of which I am looking for.
I think the story was written between WWI and WWII or right after WWII. It is about an old lady laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris and her being emotional about it. Maybe there is a side character of a man passing by and looking at her, I am not sure. The story is written witty as a satire on patriotism, the author was asking something like why is the lady emotional if she doesn't even know the fallen soldiers or something like how the fallen soldiers would benefit from flowers.
The author was french and lived during the 20th century. He was not only famous as a writer, but I think also as a journalist and half a dozen similar things (something like literature critic, essayist etc., but I can't remember with certainty).
Thanks for clues what the name and author of this short story might be!
