In Pictures: France's World Cup winners given heroes' welcome in Paris

Les Bleus landed in Paris at Charles-de-Gaulle airport around 4.40pm to be greeted by cheering airport workers and a small gathering including the country's sports minister.

France's World Cup winners arrived back home on Monday at the main airport near Paris and were given a guard of honour from the fire brigade which sprayed water over their plane.

Captain Hugo Lloris, flanked by coach Didier Deschamps, was the first to emerge from the Air France aircraft, raising the famed golden trophy before 
heading down the stairs and on to a freshly laid red carpet.

The players disembarked the plane along with the precious World Cup trophy, which they won for the second time in Moscow on Sunday evening after a 4-2 win over Croatia.

Hundreds of fans waited at the airport to greet their heroes but there were tens of thousands more thronging the Champs-Elysées Avenue in western Paris to await the team's victory parade in an open top bus.

Fans began to file onto the famous avenue from around 2pm to get the best spot to view the players, whose performance on Sunday had sparked wild celebrations across the country.

 

On their way to the Champs-Elysées, the French national team's bus was flanked by hundreds of moped drivers, honking their horns incessantly and holding their France flags as they flapped in the wind.

Once they reached central Paris, all 23 players, Didier Deschamps and his coaching staff swapped over to an open-top double-decker bus. 

Their arrival was met by an unexpected air show in which several fighters jets flew into the Paris sky, each leaving behind them a trail of blue, white and red to mark a timeless occasion. 

Here are the champions with the trophy on their way to celebrate with the hundreds of thousands of fans waiting anxiously along the Champs-Elysées Avenue. 

 

"It's a shame the bus doesn't go through the crowd as it did in 1998," this Twitter user commented about the large security perimeter between the crowd and the champions' bus. 

As the bus approached the Champs-Elysées, almost all 23 players scrambled onto the upper deck, filming the crowds with their mobile phones.

Even though not on playing duties, they all seemed to be wearing the same party kit; white T-shirts and  "Champions du Monde" scarves wrapped around their heads to add the festive touch.  

Les Bleus then quickly changed into their suits and headed to the Elysée Palace to be received by a proud President Emmanuel Macron.

Paul Pogba, who no doubt purposely chose to wear gold-tinted sunglasses to match the World Cup trophy, had a comical moment with France's First Lady Brigitte Macron.

 

In fact the midfield maestro stole the show with his colourful antics at the Elysée Palace. After getting Macron to dab on Sunday night, Pogba took the lead in staging this group funny pose for the camera which was way out of protocol.

After meeting the players and the families in private for a short time, Macron invited the squad out into the garden of the Elysées Palace for a reception, where spirits were high after such a momentous occasion.

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