For the third consecutive day since France won the World Cup for the first time in its history, there was pride, joy and partying and this year's Bastille Day was turning into an unprecedented outpouring of national fervour.

The squad, which has brought the greatest number of red-white-and-blue flags out into the streets since the 1944 Liberation of France, was the star guest at the President's traditional annual July 14 garden party in the grounds of the Elysee Palace.

As they arrived, the 3,000 guests massed in the Elysee Gardens broke into an emotional rendition of the national anthem ``La Marseillaise'' and chanted ``one, two, three! zero'', the score that defeated outgoing champions Brazil.

And as the 22 players, along with coach Aime Jacquet, lined up with their wives, children and the entiregovernment to brandish the gold World Cup, the crowd broke into Freddy Mercury's ``we are the champions.''

In a live television interview from the gardens of the Elysee, Chirac, referring to the multi-racial squad and the colours of the flag said: ``This tricolour, multicolour team gave a beautiful image of France, of its humanity, of its strength.''

Speaking after France's annual military Bastille Day parade along the Champs Elysees boulevard, Chirac said the army too ``is both tricolour and multicolour.''

More than just a World Cup, France has won new confidence, optimism and, just possibly, a changing vision of itself as a multi-racial land -- a vision that, if lasting, would dim the political hopes of the racist and xenophobic far-right.

France's dream team, the most racially mixed in the world along with Brazil, stands for ``a new national identity made up of integration, will, ambition, efficiency and pride in Europe,'' said the daily Liberation.