Passengers arriving at Marseille's Saint-Charles station are warned loudly about pickpockets operating in the city. For Australia, mugged by a young French side in a comprehensive style which belied the close scoreline, a sly hand filching a wallet might have been a more pleasant welcome than that which awaited them on Saturday night.
For France, a second victory over Southern Hemisphere opposition in eight days almost smacks of something previously unthinkable: consistency.
The Olympique Marseille stadium is rapidly acquiring iconic status in French rugby, with the All Blacks and now the world champions falling here in the space of a year.
After becoming the first Wallaby touring side to lose two Tests in a row in a generation, the Australia coach Eddie Jones and his captain George Gregan looked like men who did not know what had hit them.
They probably did not, given that seven of Bernard Laporte's young side had only been blooded the week before against the Springboks.
Jones's team were barely more effective in securing and retaining possession in the first half than they had been against England. They then played a storming second 40 minutes after the arrival of George Smith and Ben Tune from the bench, only to run into a French defence as solid as the stone embankments of the Vieux Port and able to force them into error after error until Tune's fine but ultimately meaningless try in the closing move of the game.
"I don't have an explanation," said Jones. "We just performed very poorly. The team turned ball over, we had poor body position in the tackle. We let them off the hook by failing to do the fundamentals well."
Australia's pack were a poor second in the physical contest for most of the match and only sporadically functioned in the lineout, and outhalf Stephen Larkham was flustered at crucial moments in the second half.
For the bespectacled, intense Laporte and the squad he wants to be the foundation of his World Cup side in 2003, there was more to be savoured than revenge for the 1999 World Cup final defeat and France's first victory over the Wallabies in eight years. After two years in the job and having received some criticism along the way, he is finding the balance he seeks between tight defence and explosive back play.
With the 19-year-old debutant Frederic Michalak exuding confidence and trickery far beyond his years, the young French back line stretched Australia from Michalak's half-break in the first minute to his colossal kick to the corner for the wing Aurelien Rougerie in injury-time.
But their finishing let them down and they had only the adopted Kiwi Tony Marsh's 27th-minute try to show for their efforts. So Australia were only eight points behind for the final half-hour. "I was trembling right to the end," said Laporte afterwards.
FRANCE: Poitrenaud (Jeanjean, 58 mins); Rougerie, Marsh, Traille, Bory; Michalak, Galthie ; Crenca, Ibanez (Bru, 77), De Villiers, Auradou, Privat (Nallet,73), Betsen, Magne, Tabacco.
AUSTRALIA: Burke (Tune, 56); Latham, Grey (Flatley, 76), Bond, Roff; Larkham, Gregan (Stiles, Foley (Cannon76), Darwin (Moore, 76), Harrison (Cockbain, 54), Giffin, Finnegan, Waugh (Smith, 47), Kefu .
Referee: C Hawke (New Zealand).
