The World Cup-winning French team returned home to a heroes' welcome yesterday, parading down the Champs-Elysees as hundreds of thousands of cheering fans gave a raucous welcome to the country's newest idols.
France overcame a determined Croatia to win 4-2 in Sunday's final in Russia, with teenager Kylian Mbappe applying the coup de grace and cementing his place as a new global superstar at the age of just 19.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Millions of fans in France then celebrated into the night, honking car horns and flying the tricolour flag while the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe were lit up in the national colours of blue, white and red.
Crowds began converging early Monday on the Champs-Elysees, the gathering point for all national celebrations, to catch a glimpse of a returning squad which has captured the country's imagination.
As the celebrating players descended on an open-air bus under heavy police guard -- some of the 2,000 officers deployed in the capital -- nine jets from the Patrouille de France, the air force's acrobatic unit, did an honorary flyover trailing blue, white and red smoke.
After leaving the Champs-Elysees, the players quickly changed into custom-made blue suits before being welcomed at the Elysee Palace by President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, who were also decked out in blue for the occasion.
Macron previously promised the Legion of Honour for the victors' "exceptional services" to the country, an award already given to the legendary team which won France's first World Cup title in 1998.
The first couple then posed with the team as they sang the Marseillaise national anthem and waved scarves for a joyous group photo, before heading inside for a private meeting.
"Thanks to you all!" Macron told the team after gathering again outside. "This team is beautiful because you are united!"
Despite a voice nearly failing him, Pogba then proved himself a showman off the field as well as on by leading the guests in an impromptu celebratory rap punctuated by "Allez les Bleus!"
Nearly 3,000 guests were invited to the reception in the Elysee gardens, including around 1,000 youths from local football clubs such as Bondy, the gritty Paris suburb whose towering housing projects produced Mbappe.
Afterwards guests would be treated to the beats of DJ Snake, who has worked with pop stars including Lady Gaga and is part of the Pardon My French collective of French DJs.
Macron had already celebrated with the team on Sunday -- even doing "dab" dance moves with players in a video that has gone viral -- after attending the final in Moscow.
Later, the team were expected to attend a dinner in their honour at the posh Hotel du Crillon.
In Paris, the metro system has temporarily renamed six of its stations in honour of the key players, with the Victor Hugo stop -- named after the famed 19th-century writer -- becoming Victor Hugo Lloris after the team's goalkeeper.
Two stations were rebaptised in tribute to France coach Didier Deschamps, who captained the national side to its first World Cup victory, won on home soil in 1998.
"There are two things that matter -- one is that these 23 players are now together for life, whatever happens, and also that from now on they will not be the same again, because they are world champions," a champagne-soaked Deschamps said Sunday.
Macron will be relieved that joyous and occasionally chaotic celebrations across France on Sunday night passed off without any major incident following a string of terror attacks in France since 2015.
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