KEY POINTS:
It starts with a blank stare, followed by a slow shake of the head and then a look of obvious discomfort that he has no idea who the three people are.
The young Frenchman was not alone. Few Parisians have heard of Jerome Guisset, Julian Rinaldi and Maxime Gresqu, even though they are three of France's best and reputedly most famous rugby league players.
In a country dominated by le football, rugby à treize (rugby of 13) is a minority sport.
There is a stronghold in the south-west around Perpignan, where the Catalans Dragons play in the UK Super League, and Carcassonne, but it is virtually unnoticed in Paris. It was not unexpected that France's first foray into the Super League failed so miserably with Paris Saint Germain in 1996-97.
That is why it was a surprise that this morning's test between the Kiwis and France was played in the French capital - the first in Paris between the two sides since 1961.
Yves Osmont, player-coach of national second division side Nanterre and commentator for TV channel Sport + explained that all big games are held in Paris at the decree of the Ligue Francaise de Rugby à XIII.
"They want to develop rugby league in Paris so every test, final or big game is played in Paris," Osmont says.
It was hoped as many as 5000 might have turned up to watch this morning's test at Stade Jean Bouin, in the shadow of the much larger Parc des Princes, but this was sorely tested with Paris in the grip of a major public sector strike which had crippled public transport.
The game was to be shown live on Sport + but the satellite channel has only 4 million subscribers in a country of 61.5 million people and there was virtually no local media coverage in the lead-up to the match.
Even when Les Catalans played in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley this year, the match received only three lines in the national press.
In 2002, it was estimated that rugby league had about 18,000 regular players in France compared with 300,000 in rugby union.
Historically, rugby league has struggled in France, especially when the Vichy Government banned the sport during World War II. It was a working-class game and the Vichy wanted to suppress any opposition to their occupation in favour of the more conservative, right-wing rugby union.
But league survived and a golden era followed in the decade after the war. In 1951 les chanteclairs toppled Australia in a series Down Under and repeated the feat four years later, and they narrowly lost the inaugural World Cup final 16-12 to Great Britain in 1954.
They regularly beat the Kiwis throughout the 1950s and 60s but the game went into decline as rugby union gained in popularity. Before this morning's test, they hadn't won against New Zealand since a 6-5 victory in Perpignan in 1980.
"We need to forget about what has happened in the past," Osmont urged. "People still talk about how we beat Australia but that was a long time ago. We need to talk about what is happening in this life. We also need to be more professional and if we need someone to do a job we should pay them rather than get a friend who has no experience to do it for free."
One on the payroll is current French and former Warriors coach John Monie, who spends up to four months a year in France watching games and working with players.
"When they approached me, a couple of years ago, I didn't really want another job but I guess the thought of spending three or four months in the south of France was just too appealing," said Monie, who spends the rest of his time on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. "I'm really happy with the progress of the side but a lot of them don't understand about the intensity of the game at the top level.
"We have eight players in the squad who play for Catalans, but the guys who play in the domestic competition are still off the pace a little bit. I just hope that when we get to the World Cup we can be competitive because we don't want it to be like the Rugby World Cup when teams were beaten by 100 points."
And France have shown signs of awakening from their slumber. In the past month, they have beaten Scotland as well as Papua New Guinea (twice), and in the two previous outings against New Zealand before this morning's test, they went down 24-20 in 2004 and 38-22 in 2005 after having led 22-20 with nine minutes remaining.
