France didn't sneak into Boston. Hundreds of fans waited outside the Four Seasons on Boylston Street on Wednesday evening, and Les Bleus gave them a show — Mbappé, Dembélé, and Olise signing autographs for supporters who'd been camped out for hours.
The squad flew into Logan Airport just after 4 p.m., making the transatlantic trip six days before their Group Stage opener against Senegal on June 16 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. That's a smart buffer. Jet lag is a real factor at tournaments, and France clearly aren't leaving acclimatisation to chance.
A setup built for focus
The French federation has booked out the entire 239-room Four Seasons for the duration of the tournament. All of it. That's the kind of move that buys you complete privacy and removes every logistical headache in one go — no other guests, no corridor run-ins, no distractions.
Training will happen at Bentley University in Waltham. Vaughn Williams, explaining why the university was chosen, didn't dress it up: "We provided that, which is a hard thing to do, obviously, in the States." Closed sessions, good grass, no cameras. Exactly what a team with genuine title ambitions needs.
France are playing their home matches at Gillette Stadium — rebranded as "Boston Stadium" for the tournament. Their headline fixture there comes on June 26 against Norway, a match that could carry serious weight depending on how the group shakes out. Given that France are among the pre-tournament favourites, their odds will harden or soften quickly once we see how they handle Senegal in that opener.
The weight of history
They won it in 2018. They reached the final in 2022 and lost to Argentina in one of the most dramatic World Cup finals in memory. This squad knows what it takes to go deep — and they know what heartbreak at the final hurdle feels like too.
The fanfare in Boston is nice. What happens in New Jersey on June 16 is what matters.
