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If you're tramping around Paris, here's where to sleep

With tens of thousands of English fans heading for the Rugby World Cup final against South Africa on Saturday and Paris officials warning that the city's hotels are full, many could end up sleeping rough.

But where to go? The Times has consulted an expert, Diego Zehner, who is amongst an estimated 8,000 homeless people in the French capital.

Bernard Laporte, the man who sold the Gallic soul

When Aime Jacquet became French football team manager in 1993, he dropped David Ginola and Eric Cantona and obtained a succession of goalless draws.

Five years later, his defensively-minded side won the World Cup and Jacquet became a national icon.

French public blame overconfidence for defeat

Tens of thousands of French people stood in the Champs de Mars under the Eiffel Tower to watch the semi-final. Hundreds of thousands more gathered in cafes and bistrots across the country. A total of 20m were at home in front of their television sets.

Rugby had never known anything like it in France - an enthusiasm to match anything Thierry Henry and his footballing teammates had ever produced.

And amid the euphoria following victory against the All Blacks, the result of the England game was a foregone conclusion: 84 per cent of the population was certain France would win, according to a poll on Saturday for Sud Ouest newspaper.

So the sense of disappointment and frustration was huge in the aftermath.

I bore the brunt when I bought Le Journal du Dimanche, the Sunday newspaper, with its banner front-page headline: 'Rageant' (Infuriating).

"Don't try speaking English in here today," said the newsagent. "We couldn't stand it."

New Zealand fans quash French claims

France will not just be playing England in the World Cup semi-final at the Stade de France. They will be playing the entire English-speaking rugby community.

That, at least, was the impression left by Bernard Lapasset, the chairman of the French Rugby Federation, as he explained why it would be good for the sport if his team went on to win the tournament.

Pim, Pam, Poum (Crash Bang Wallop)

Whatever happened to French flair? Le Monde asked last week.

In a long column, the newspaper lamented the end of the flamboyance which had been the hallmark of French rugby teams - indeed the French nation as a whole -throughout the ages.

The philosophy of the swashbuckling Musketeers had given way to anglo-saxon discipine under the weight of professionalism, said Pierre Villepreux, the former French coach.

His concerns are widely shared although not often aired publicly in France.

Rugby frenzy sends prices rocketing

When France reached the final of the 1999 World Cup, I went to Labatut, a village between Bordeaux and Toulouse which was home to Christophe Lamaison, their fly half.

The mayor was in a tree house trying to shoot wood pigeons, but came down to watch a game which gripped locals, although it ended in a disappointing defeat against Austrialia.

In many parts of France, however, the event went largely unnoticed as the country divided between a rugby-playing south and a footballing north.

How different it is this year.

Defeat is unthinkable to the French

'Rendez-vous samedi,' said my neighbour as he wheeled his six-month old son to the baby minder this morning. 'Samedi - le grand jour,' chimed in the road-sweeper as he brushed autumn leaves off the pavement with his green broomstick.