'World Cup Fans' is a special SBS News series running in the lead up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. It looks at the 32 qualifying countries through the eyes of their fans in Australia.
When the World Cup gets underway in less than two months' time, France will be among the favourites to lift the winner's trophy.
'Les Bleus' breezed through qualifying and boast a side with near unrivalled attacking flair. So it's no wonder French Australians are quietly confident of repeating the effort that saw France claim its first world crown .
That match, two decades ago, was France's finest hour (hour and a half, to be precise) and it sparked wild celebrations in France and in French communities around the world.
France's Marcel Desailly with the World Cup trophy in 1998. Source: EMPICS Sport / AAP
Frenchman Patrick Benhamou says the World Cup win came at a particularly poignant time for France, with Jean-Marie Le Pen still in charge of the far-right party, the National Front, at the time.
"France had a lot of problems, social issues. The National Front, with the infamous Mr Le Pen was on TV," he tells SBS News.
"In the French team we had Marcel Desailly from Africa, we had Lilian Thuram from Guadeloupe [a French region in the Carribean], Zinedine Zidane is from Algeria. It really sealed the French nation."
Not that the French need help singing from the same songsheet in other areas of national life. Just as it's hard to separate the French from their football, it's also futile trying to part them from their culture.
Dana, Frederic, Maxime and Arnaud Tartour, sitting with Patrick Benhamou Source: SBS
Dana Tartour - a seventh generation Australian - is running through the cheese selection on offer during a regular catch up with friends, most of them French, at her North Bondi apartment.
"So there's chevre, comté, brie, Normandy, Bourgogne and Bordeaux 2009," she says.
Dana is married to Frederic, who migrated to Australia from France in the '90s.
The Tartours have made their home in Sydney but have ensured their sons Maxime and Arnaud were raised the French way.
"It's an education in culture. It's a very different culture, it's a very rich culture," Dana said. "It's something to harness and to enjoy and to draw from so many traditions that I wasn't brought up with and it's a lot of fun too."
The nation supports its football team with the same passion.
Two European Championships and a World Cup put France among the elite of world football. France can count among its stars the likes of Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud.
And grouped with Australia, Peru and Denmark at the World Cup in Russia, French hopes are high that come June the country will claim a second world crown.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup begins 15 June. SBS will broadcast the biggest games, including the opening match, semi-finals and final, live, free and in HD.
