The victorious French national football team which won the Russia 2018 World Cup were on Monday paraded before hundreds of thousands of fans in Paris, the country’s capital city.

Jubilant crowds lined the capital’s main artery, the Champs-Elysées, to greet the team’s open-top bus even as jets saluted the players and the coach overhead, trailing smoke in French red, white and blue.

The team was then honoured with an official reception by President Emmanuel Macron who had announced that the players and their coach would receive the country’s highest accolade – the Légion d’Honneur.

Captain Hugo Lloris and coach Didier Deschamps were the first to emerge from the plane after they landed, raising the competition’s golden trophy to the cheering crowds of fans who had gathered to greet them.

The footballers did not disappoint, passing the golden World Cup trophy from player to player as they jumped and danced on an open-air bus with “World Champions” emblazoned on its side.

Later, Mr. Macron and his wife, Brigitte, joined the players in a rendition of the French national anthem on the presidential palace steps after which he thanked them for making the country proud.

“Never forget where you come from: all the clubs across France that trained you. “This team is beautiful because you are united, ” Macron told them in the palace’s gardens.

Some 3,000 people were invited to the presidential reception, including 1,000 youths from football clubs around the country such as Bondy, the Paris suburb where 19-year-old forward Kylian Mbappé first started his career.

Fans partied across France overnight, but celebrations in some cities were also marred by violence as the French Police had to fire tear gas as sporadic clashes broke out in Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg and Rouen.

Overall, some 292 people were arrested nationwide with 31 people, including eight minors who had their detention extended on suspicion of involvement in incidents in Paris during the victory celebrations.

But the national mood was one of joy which was heightened after the Paris Transport Company (RATP) announced that it was celebrating the feat by renaming some stations after some of the victorious players.

They include Victor Hugo Lloris named after the team’s captain and goalkeeper and Deschamps-Elysées in honour of their coach, Didier Deschamps.