FRANCE: When the word "London" was pronounced, a pained cry of "N-o-o-o-o-on" rose spontaneously the length of the gold-leafed reception room at Paris City Hall.

There was some half-hearted booing, but most of the crowd of several thousand athletes, municipal employees and officials stood in stunned silence, many with tears in their eyes. A few embraced, as they might have at a funeral.

In Singapore, mayor Bertrand Delanoë spoke to LCI television: "This is a huge disappointment that I cannot understand," said the man who worked hardest for the failed French Olympic bid. Delanoë expressed a suspicion on many French minds: that the British did not play by the rules.

"When I went up to my room to sleep last night," Delanoë said, "there were people coming down from meetings with prime minister Blair and the head of their candidacy, Sebastian Coe. I didn't understand that's how you were supposed to do it . . . Maybe that's why we lost - we were too 'fair-play'."

Many of the 10,000 people who gathered on the fake athletic field in front of City Hall also criticised British "lobbying" and "aggressiveness". If London won, rumour had it, Princess Anne promised members of the Olympic Committee they could meet with her mother, the Queen of England. The British had violated Olympic rules by calling the Stade de France "obsolete", said others.

In another interview done in Singapore, Jean-Paul Huchon, the president of the Ile-de-France (Paris) region, said he felt "more than disappointment, almost anger", and that "English lobbying was almost over the top". But Mr Huchon also gave a plausible explanation for the committee's decision. "The state of moral, political and social crisis that France has been in, especially since May 29th, may have led them to prefer people who seemed to really want it, and who were less in crisis."

"The Americans did this," I heard someone in the crowd hiss, implying that Washington somehow sabotaged the French candidacy.

"The French were living a dream; now we'll fall back into our problems," said Isabelle Alexandre, a local councillor for Paris' 14th arrondissement. "People are returning to a terrible sadness. I find it tragic."

Alexandre said that London's victory "is worse, because they're the ones who sided with the Americans in the Iraq war. It's as if the English have won approval for joining the war".

A few dozen guests at the cancelled victory reception stood by the bar, drowning their sorrows in white wine. Hundreds of champagne flutes were lined up on the tables, unused. The liveried waiters never brought out the bubbly.

A few minutes before the announcement, it started to rain on the crowd in front of City Hall. Outside, there was no enraged cry, just an inarticulate collective groan, and the silent, dejected departure of thousands.

Soria Mellouki, a teacher for handicapped children, was still sitting on the fake grass half an hour later. "Look, they're taking away the sound equipment for the band," she said. "People came for a party; they should have held it anyway."

That was the spirit of prime minister Dominique de Villepin's announcement less than three hours after what he too called "a huge disappointment for our country". His government, which is labouring under record budget deficits, will, nonetheless, build the cycling stadium, sailing harbour and Olympic pool that were part of the project, Villepin promised.

Benjamin Baudoin, an engineering student from Nice, was among the few hundred Olympic bid supporters who lingered in front of City Hall, not knowing what to do with the afternoon they'd reserved for celebration. "I'm pissed off," Baudoin said.

"I have the impression that the rest of the world doesn't like France. I would have preferred that Madrid won; they're Latins like us."

In the run-up to yesterday's announcement, French politicians speculated that if Paris won, mayor Delanoë would get the credit, but if Paris lost, president Jacques Chirac would be blamed. Delanoë was applauded when he appeared on the giant screen yesterday.