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Party lasts all night in France
Celebration marred by accident when car plows into crowd
Posted: Monday July 13, 1998 09:19 AM
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The party lasted into the wee hours of the morning in Paris in celebration of France's title (AP) |
PARIS (AP) -- From plazas to boulevards to cafes to living rooms, from
the smallest villages to the biggest cities, a single glorious chant echoed
across France: "We are
the champions!"
France's stunning World Cup victory over Brazil on Sunday
night sent the country into patriotic celebration not seen since the
Liberation.
"The day of glory has arrived," France's national anthem goes, and on
this night the French sang it everywhere, and like they truly believed it.
The merrymaking was marred, however, by an accident on the
Champs-Elysees, the grand avenue crowned by the Arc de Triomphe.
As more than a million people gathered on the avenue, an apparently
panicked female driver careened out of control and plowed into a crowd of
revelers, injuring 80 people, 11 seriously.
The driver, a 44-year-old schoolteacher, panicked and ran away from the
scene, said a source close to the investigation into the accident, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
After wandering around Paris for several hours, she called her son who
took the distraught woman to a police station in suburban Paris where she
was detained, the source said.
The celebratory mood of the early morning hours quickly turned into
horror as dozens of ambulances and 200 rescue workers converged on the
scene. Some of the victims were treated on the ground.
It was a sour note in an otherwise ecstatic night for the French, who had
never won a World Cup despite having invented the tournament.
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The Arc de Triomphe showed French players' faces along with 'Victory is ours' after the win (AP) |
This was the first time a host team won the World Cup since Argentina's
victory in 1978. Brazil won the trophy in 1994, its fourth time.
"Amazing! World champions for the first time!" shouted Christian Junker,
19, carrying one end of a giant French flag as he rushed out of the
Saint-Denis stadium after the game.
He and two friends -- all with faces painted the red, white and blue of
the flag -- had traveled from the Lorraine region and slept the previous
night on the grass, near the Eiffel Tower.
The three, all students, took issue with the prevailing view of French
fans as less devoted than those in other countries.
"Not true! We believed in our team all along," said Julien Charoin, 20.
And the triumph, they said, would mean a new sense of unity for France,
which has its problems with racial and class tensions.
"This victory brings everyone together," said Cedric Trunzler, 21. "There
are many races and religions here. But we are all French. We all won."
France found itself unified by a multiracial team. Lilian Thuram, a black
from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, scored two goals against Croatia in the
semifinals.
On Sunday, though, it was Zinedine Zidane, the son of an Algerian night
watchman in Marseille, who was the hero. His two goals gave France an
unbeatable lead. Emmanuel Petit scored a third with less than a minute to
go.
Zidane far outshined Brazil's Ronaldo, who nearly missed the game because
of an ankle injury.
The accident along the main boulevard in Paris left 80 people injured (AP) | |
"Brazil was comatose," said one of its dejected fans, Cesar Lapaglia, 27.
"We just didn't play," he said into his drink at a Brazilian bar in the
Left Bank. "And France deserved everything it got."
"I'm going back to my hotel," said Jose Luiz Pascoal, 38, who came from
Rio de Janeiro to support the Brazilian team.
"I just don't know what happened. I'm very, very sad. Won't be able to
work for a week."
When the final whistle sounded, shouts of "We are the champions" echoed
from crowds moving toward the Champs-Elysees from all over Paris: the Left
Bank, the packed City Hall plaza, the elegant shopping streets of the
Champs-Elysees area.
They partied in front of the vast Louvre museum and the manicured
Tuileries gardens, and also in front of "Paris Sexy Folies" in a gritty
northern neighborhood.
Youths used beer cans for soccer balls, or anything else they could find.
Traffic was impossible. Cars that could manage to move at all were often
surrounded by groups of raucous fans. People begged taxis to stop, usually
to no avail.
It wasn't much different in other parts of the country. In Bordeaux,
Lille and Marseille, thousands clogged central squares and jumped into
fountains to celebrate.
In Brazil, where a fifth victory was expected, fans expressed disbelief.
Many Brazilians had tears in their eyes as they stared at a large public
television screen mounted on Copacabana beach.
"We lost, but second is still great," said Marinede da Costa, a
28-year-old secretary who watched on the Copacabana screen.
But the glory belonged to France, and as the sun came up today, the car
horns were still honking away.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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