France's World Cup stars set for heroes' return
RATP renames Paris Metro stations in honour of Moscow winners, who will take part in an open-top bus parade along Champs-Elys茅es on Monday afternoon
Thousands of football fans are expected to line the streets of Paris's Champs-Elys茅es on Monday afternoon to welcome home the World Cup-winning French football team.
An open-top bus parade is scheduled to take place between 5.30pm and 6.30pm from the Arc de Triomphe to the Champs-Elys茅es roundabout, before the players and coaches will be received by President Emmanuel Macron at the Elys茅e Palace.
It will be the second time the President has congratulated the players. He was in Russia for the final.
And joined Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovi膰 at the presentation ceremony in a cloudburst after the match.
After celebrating in Moscow overnight, Didier Deschamps' side are due to land at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle at 3.55pm, less than 24 hours after they beat Croatia 4-2 in Moscow to lift their second World title in 20 years.
Meanwhile, sore-headed commuters in Paris on Monday have had a few new Metro station names to get to grips with, as public transport operator RATP joined the World Cup celebrations.
The station Avron (line 2) will be temporarily known as "Nous Avron Gagn茅", Charles de Gaulle-Etoile (line 2) becomes "On a 2 脡toiles", Victor Hugo (line 2) is "Victor Hugo Lloris", Bercy (lines 6 and 14) will be called "Bercy les Bleus", Notre-Dame des Champs (line 12) will be "Notre Didier Deschamps", and Champs-Elys茅es-Cl茅menceau (line 13) is "Deschamps Elys茅es - Cl茅menceau".
More than 19million people tuned in to French broadcaster TF1 to see the final, with the audience peaking at about 22.3million - the highest audience for a single programme on French TV so far in 2018.
Sunday night's celebrations were, however, marred by violence and tragedy. A total 130 people were taken into custody in the Paris region alone, after an outbreak of looting on the Champs-Elys茅es, while there were outbreaks of violence in Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg and Rouen.
A 50-year-old man died after diving into a canal in Annecy during victory celebrations, while another died after driving his car into a tree in the Oise.
