It was a Bastille Day like no other - as if the country could not stop celebrating its unexpected World Cup victory. In their innocent, almost childlike outpouring of joy, a people who are normally coolly Cartesian have abandoned convention. At President Chirac's garden party, women danced barefoot on the lawn of the Elysee Palace and the army band played Freddie Mercury's We are the Champions of the World.
Medal-laden colonels and generals licked ice-cream cones, while French-speaking students from 120 countries, dressed in Korean kimonos, Turkmen headdresses and bright African fabrics, stopped to have their photos taken with presidential guards and French politicians.
Even the annual military parade (a sober affair if ever there was one) had more energy than usual. Perhaps it was an illusion, but despite disgruntlement over huge defence cuts there seemed to be a special spring in the step of the soldiers, a new tone in the trumpets and tubas. The jets' red, white and blue contrails over the Champs-Elysees seemed more vivid, the gold braid and polished helmets that much more immaculate.
On the eve of Bastille Day, the victorious football-players posed with feathered, sequined dancers at the Lido, then partied at the Bains-Douches nightclub with the actress Ophelie Winter and her boyfriend, rap singer MC Solaar. Parisians danced through a second night in firemen's balls across the capital. The dancing, along with fireworks and a free concert by Jean-Michel Jarre at the Eiffel Tower, was to continue a third night yesterday.
Everywhere Les Bleus go, they are awaited by adoring fans. At noon yesterday, as the footballers and their wives prepared for their Elysee appearance, a police line held back thousands outside the Crillon Hotel on the Place de la Concorde.
Rabah Khedache (23) whose parents emigrated from the Kabylie region of Algeria, like the family of the star player Zinedine Zidane, was hoping to catch a glimpse of the man he described as "my idol". If he could say one thing to Zidane, it would be "a big thank you - for everything he has done for our [Kabyle] people".
The hero-worship of this son of Algerian immigrants, known by the nickname "Zizou", is one of the most extraordinary things about France's World Cup euphoria. It is stunning to hear blond, blue-eyed French school children telling reporters that the shy, balding, darker-skinned Zidane is the most handsome man in France, that they would like to have him as their father. At the Elysee garden party the crowd shouted "Zizou president!" and "Jacquet president!"
President Chirac didn't seem worried that the football star and his coach might covet his job. He knows their popularity is rubbing off on him, and he too is enjoying a burst of energy. What a difference a year makes! At his 1997 garden party, just after the parliamentary elections that were so disastrous for him, Mr Chirac seemed a tired, broken figure. Philippe Seguin, who had just taken over the the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) founded by Mr Chirac, was mobbed by young RPR supporters asking for his autograph. But yesterday the President was exuberant, and no one paid any attention to Mr Seguin.
While the party got under way, Mr Chirac gave an interview to French television in a secluded corner of the Elysee gardens.
The French football team personified all that was best in his country, Mr Chirac announced. "This victory showed that France has a soul - that she was looking for her soul." The "multicoloured" team conveyed a beautiful image of France abroad. "We have given an image of a France that wins, of a France that wins together."
Hundreds of the President's guests watched the interview on a giant screen in the Salle des Fetes, one of the Elysee's most elegant reception rooms, dripping with gold leaf and red brocade. Republique (1st eee acute) Francaise (cedilla on ccc) stood out in the stucco above the screen, a reminder that despite the majesty of the presidential palace, we were celebrating a revolution.
With great ingenuity, France has reconciled the trappings of monarchy with democracy. Yes, the President lives in a splendid palace, but every Bastille Day it is invaded by thousands of ordinary Frenchmen. As Mr Chirac delivered his analysis of unemployment, immigration, reforms in justice, social security and taxation, a murmur spread through the hundreds of people in the Salle des Fetes. Now shouting could be heard from the gardens outside. The football team was arriving. Mr Chirac's audience began to slip away.
"There is undoubtedly a disaffection among French people regarding politics," the president was saying. "The French showed they are capable of enthusiasm in the World Cup. We must renew political life."
As his audience decamped to the garden, Mr Chirac spoke of the morning's military parade. "I was watching the foreign diplomats in the stand out of the corner of my eye," he said. "And I saw admiration on their faces."
When he rode the length of the avenue in his khaki green command car, he found French people changed. "They were happy, because the sun was shining, because we're the world champions, and because the army was parading."
The attractive young woman sitting next to me, dressed in a diaphanous dress and high platform shoes, had fallen asleep on her chair - she must have spent the two previous nights celebrating the World Cup victory.
Elysee flunkies in black cutaways opened the doors of the palace and the 23 most popular men in France, Les Bleus and their coach Aime Jacquet, emerged onto the garden steps. The team's captain, Didier Deschamps, stood on one side of Mr Chirac, holding the gold World Cup trophy over his head, then passing it on to his team-mates. Mr Jacquet - who became a knight of the Legion of Honour yesterday - stood on the other side of Mr Chirac, flanked by the Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, and Cup organiser, Michel Platini.
"The French team is very proud to see all of France happy," Mr Jacquet said, while the President tried to hush the cheering crowd for the speeches. "We are the world champions, but you too - all of France - are world champions," Mr Deschamps said.
