Champagne was flowing freely as multi-cultural Australia helped its large French community celebrate a highly popular World Cup victory on Monday. Congratulatory messages poured into French diplomatic missions in Canberra and state capitals and the 3-0 victory over former world champions Brazil dominated news bulletins from the final whistle just before 7.00 a.m (2100 Gmt Sunday).French restaurants and businesses celebrated with blue, red and white flags and bunting a day ahead of the annual July 14 Bastille Day celebrations. Thousands of French people danced, whooped and shed tears of joy after watching the early morning final at parties in their homes or in hotels and pubs which opened specially for the match.French Ambassador Dominique Girard said the win was also a victory for racial tolerance, with France uniting behind its multi-racial team of players, such as Algerian-born goal scorer Zinedine Zidane, and Ghanaian-born defender Marcel Desailly.Thousands crowd MontrealstreetsThousands waving French flags spilled out onto the streets of Montreal to celebrate France's World Cup upset win. "We won, we won," chanted the France fans in the largest city of French-speaking Quebec province.Fans of both France and Brazil crowded cafes and bars to watch the match. By the time France had scored the first two goals, blue, white and red flags were waving. After the match Brazil fans shook hands with those who rooted for France under the surprised watch of police who had been deployed to stem rioting.Expat French celebrate winThousands of cheering expatriate French filled the streets on Sunday and in other cities to celebrate the victory. In New York, where festivities for France's national holiday arrived two days early as 1,000 spectators waving French flags jammed 60th Street.And the Empire State Building was to light up in the blue, white and red of the French flag late Sunday although football fans will likely not know that it was planned for the BastilleDay celebrations and not the World Cup win.But most streets in Manhattan were empty as the rest of the town seemed to ignore the game that had the rest of the planet transfixed. Football fans watched the match in brilliant afternoon sunshine on television sets perched outside the Alliance Francaise.In Washington, a ragged parade of shouting fans drove up and down almost empty city streets a few blocks from the White House.
