WITH a national record of 33 Olympic medals to their name and not finished yet you would have thought that the French would be dancing around the Arc de Triomphe, or at least cracking open a bottle of champagne or two. With a population almost identical to that of neighbouring Britain, France has won more than three times as many medals, no fewer than 13 of them gold, and ties fourth in the overall medals table.

At Wednesday's Cabinet meeting, President Chirac joked that he was awarding the sports minister, Guy Drut, himself a former Olympic champion, a metaphorical gold medal in recognition of the French team's success at Atlanta.

The congratulations from on high are lavish. President Chirac sent a long message to Marie Jo Perec when she retained her 400 metres championship, applauding the example she had set to France's young athletes and quoting from a poet of her native Guadeloupe. The prime minister, Ala in Juppe, appended a handwritten note to his message, saying "Well done! I embrace you a sentiment rendered less risque by the use of the polite vous.

The media, in amazed ecstasy at France's performance, are heavily promoting the idea that the medal winners represent the "better face" of French youth. Much has been made of the fact that many of the medal winners, especially in the early events like fencing and judo, were hitherto "unknowns" from immigrant families, from modest back grounds, or from the further reaches of the French empire i.e. they did not come from the fashionable Paris clubs.

"Where did all these stars come from?" asked the pro-government daily Figaro in surprise, before drawing an optimistic lesson for social and racial integration.

The victory of Djamel Bouras in the judo was hailed as the first time a beur, a non white Frenchman of north African origin, had won an Olympic gold. His call home, and his joyous family gathered on the sofa in their council house were held up as proof that France's housing estates portrayed, this time last year as the cesspits of the nation, seething with Islamic fundamentalism and ethnic unrest were not such a failure after all.

Two other gold medallists, a woman judo player and a cyclist, with previous Olympic disappointments to their name, were treated as paragons of the quiet, wholesome, country life. The message was that here, in the much ridiculed France profonde is where to find the real heart and soul of France.

For the French government, the nation's success in Atlanta has only one downside a nagging worry about how much it could cost. Olympic victors receive generous rewards from the government, up to 250,000 francs more than £30,000 for a gold medal.

Otherwise, the nation's success at Atlanta should be a godsend. President and prime minister have spent the best part of a year blaming a nebulous "feel bad" factor for the economy's failure to grow at the requisite rate and the stubborn persistence of high unemployment. What better tonic for the national psyche than a large tally of Olympic medals?

Unfortunately, little of this seems to be filtering through. France is just not listening it is on holiday. And when the French go on holiday they have better things to do than watch television.