In fact, the exceptions were the yobs. There were also the German thugs who beat the French policeman Daniel Nivel into a coma in Lens. But otherwise, as at all recent tournaments, the only large-scale bad behaviour came from English fans. It was interesting to note how foreign supporters in France responded to the English marauding in Marseille. The overriding sentiment wasn't fear, or loathing, but bafflement.
French women are very pretty.
We saw Jairzinho on a train yesterday. Indeed, they wore a look of grim intent as if they had come to the beaches of Marseille for an unpleasant job that simply had to be done. They stood out as weird. But at Euro 2000 the general mood shifted. This too was a carnival.