England in Paris

The sky over Paris today is watery blue and scarred with white airoplane trails. The crowds on the Champs Elysees, and beneath the Arc de Triomphe, and in the square in front of the Louvre are flecked with white.

It is presumably never hard to spot an Englishman in Paris, but it has never been easier today. Entire families, from baby to grandfather, are trailing about the boulevards in England rugby tops. In front of the Eiffel Tower, white-shirted fans have colonised a large area of the park in front of the television screen, staking their places for the evening. Near the front, sitting  before a shrub bush which they have decorated with empty beer cans, are students from the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, and from Bristol West of England University. In front of them is a shopping trolley, loaded with beer, and as George S-B (he won't give me his full double barrelled name) put it: "We have a bit of the traditional vino too to keep the frogs happy."

It cost George £41 to get to Paris. He pitched his tent in front of the screen but was asked to move by policemen, after which he pitched it in some nearby bushes. They began drinking at 10am. Would they last the evening? They weren't sure. "Eating is cheating," said Fergus Playfer.

Cath Robinson, from Hartlepool, was behind the posts through which Jonny Wilkinson kicked in 2003. She is busy painting the faces of her travelling companions: Glynn Evans, Paul Rudd, Craig Robson and her husband David. "We decided to come on Monday," says Mr Rudd. "We will have all been divorced by our wives by the time we get home." They ply your correspondent with lager. "They're only tiddly ones," says Mr Rudd. "Take another one for your travels." They also offer me a lift home, and ask if I have a driving licence and might be sober tomorrow morning. They have to drive out of Paris at 6am.

Underneath the Eiffel Tower, two students from Cambridge dressed as St George are knighting a string of South African fans. "St George seemed approproate," says George Dean. "We are hoping to slay some Springboks tonight."

A red route master bus pulls up beside the tower. Aboard are Chobham Rugby Club: there is a Queen Elizabeth I, a Richard Lion Heart and a Sherlock Holmes among them. "It's really hard to think of English things rather than British ones," said Rose Seale, who has travelled in a very authentic Virgin Queen outfit. On the way they picked up fellow fans in their bus. "The French have been very supportive. We have had toots all the way down, even from the French lorry drivers."

"We have only had to do two U-turns for low bridges," says Andy Penn, 52, the owner of the bus. "And a police man did get fed up with us after we kept going round and round the Arc de Triomphe."