Lille ended a 56-year silverware drought with a stunning league and French Cup double in 2011, but by the end of the year, the club monopolising the headlines in France was Paris Saint-Germain.
The perennial sleeping giants of the French game were shaken from their slumber in the summer, when the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) completed a takeover that transformed PSG into one of the world's richest sides.
With charismatic former player Leonardo installed as sporting director, the club embarked on an ambitious recruitment drive that saw nine new players arrive at Parc des Princes at a cost of around 90 million euros ($119m).
Tried and tested Ligue 1 performers such as Kevin Gameiro (Lorient) and Blaise Matuidi (Saint-Etienne) formed the basis of that recruitment, but the signing that turned heads across the football world was that of Javier Pastore.
The willowy Argentine playmaker had been expected to leave Palermo for a Champions League club, but PSG broke the bank with a 42-million-euro bid that made the 22-year-old the most expensive player in French football history.
The QIA era began with the damp squib of a 1-0 loss at home to Lorient on the season's opening day but PSG quickly turned things around and were jostling for position at the league summit as the year drew to a close.
Life is never straightforward at PSG, however, and an early exit from the Europa League fuelled speculation about the future of coach Antoine Kombouare, who is reportedly yet to convince the new owners of his worth.
Belgian winger Eden Hazard is rumoured to feature high on PSG's wish list, having announced his intention to leave Lille in October after being crowned player of the season for his starring role in the double triumph.
Lille's success was fitting recompense for a side that proved itself to be both the most appealing and the most enduring over the course of the 2010-11 campaign.
An audacious 89th-minute free-kick from Ludovic Obraniak gave them a 1-0 win over PSG in the French Cup final at Stade de France in May and eight days later, a 2-2 draw against the same opponents secured the Ligue 1 crown.
"There are some special reference points among the teams that have won the double," said Lille coach Rudi Garcia.
"The Bordeaux of Aime Jacquet (1987), the Marseille of Jean-Pierre Papin (1989), the Auxerre of Guy Roux (1996). And we've done it."
After 34 years in the French elite, Monaco sank into Ligue 2 -- where they kept sinking -- and were joined by Lens and Arles-Avignon, with Evian, Dijon and Ajaccio promoted from the second tier.
Lille lost Adil Rami, Yohan Cabaye and Gervinho in the summer but gained a new crowd favourite in loan signing Joe Cole, who arrived from Liverpool but was unable to prevent a group-stage elimination in the Champions League.
Marseille retained their League Cup crown and finished second in the league but an appalling return of one win from the opening 10 games of the new season extinguished their title ambitions.
Lyon replaced the unpopular Claude Puel with old boy Remi Garde and joined OM in the Champions League last 16 after a 7-1 thrashing of Dinamo Zagreb helped to procure the unlikely seven-goal swing in goal difference that they needed to progress at the expense of Ajax.
In the international arena, France continued to salve the wounds inflicted at the 2010 World Cup, making steady if unspectacular progress under Laurent Blanc.
The French Football Federation (FFF) became embroiled in a racism scandal in May, after a secret recording revealed Blanc and other officials speaking in favour of introducing a quota on dual-nationality players in French academies.
A two-pronged investigation by the federation and the French government cleared Blanc, however, and he saw his team book their place at Euro 2012 with a nervy 1-1 draw at home to Bosnia-Herzegovina in October.
"Progress has not been as quick as we hoped," admitted Blanc, whose side were drawn alongside England, Sweden and co-hosts Ukraine at Euro 2012.
"But we have come a long way, a very long way.
"There are still things we need to improve, but the objective for us was to qualify for the Euro and we have done that."
Source: AFP
