In recent years, Paris Saint-Germain by some distance has become the most formidable soccer club in France. And now it has aspirations to win a first European continental club title.

Paris, then, ought to have been in a froth tonight, as PSG played at 10-time-European champion Real Madrid, with the winner all but guaranteed a place in the final 16 of the Champions League and likely to win Group A and gain the right to face a less-scary second-place group team in the two-leg round-of-16 pairings.

So, how did Paris react to this big game at Madrid’s Bernabeu Stadium?

From what I can tell, from central Paris … the great majority of the city’s citizens didn’t react at all.

I was a bit surprised that neither of France’s two national TV stations carried the match. Such is the case in most countries that “local” games are televised even if another entity holds the overall Champions League rights.

During tonight’s game, one of those two French channels broadcast a two-hour look at Josef Stalin. (Interesting, but it’s not like Uncle Joe is still making news.)

Early in the second half of a 1-0 game (with Madrid leading), I ventured out into the night, here in the 11th arrondissement, a youngish and fairly hip (and densely populated) quartier, to look inside bars and restaurants and gauge the excitement of fans — in addition to walking the dog.

A walk around one large block of buildings took me past at least 15 restos and bars clearly open for business.

The first 13 (me peeping in the window) showed none of these establishments with televisions tuned to the PSG-Real Madrid match.

I saw young men playing ping-pong. I saw dozens of people smoking outside restaurants. I saw men and women laughing and drinking. I did not see any watching the big game.

Finally, as I turned for home, I could see through the plate-glass window of a busy bar, and four young men were sitting in chairs and facing the back wall of the place.

“Aha,” I thought. “We find the PSG fans of the 11th. Maybe I will join them for the final half hour.”

But no. As I got closer, I saw that the four young men were part of a crowd watching a live performance on a little stage. I’m guessing it was a comedian.

Only at the last still-open gathering place did I find a television tuned to the game, a game that was still 1-0 — and, thus, a match the PSG of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani could still win.

And that sole purveyor of the match was a tiny Guianese restaurant with about six people in it.

Well then.

Lots of local residents were out and about, at least in this neighborhood, and practically none of them cared enough about PSG to watch the game in groups — or be in a place where the game was at least background noise.

And, too, it could be that none of the bars and restaurants, aside from the Guianese place, felt enough of a commercial demand to 1) have a TV on and 2) pay the fees to show the game.

Granted, PSG does not have lots of history. Only two Ligue 1 championships — until the past three in succession. The club was formed in 1970, which makes it the youngest major European power.

People who know Paris far better than I do suggest that Parisians are fans of the France national team … but they are still coming to terms with their excitement (or lack of same) for France’s most ambitious club team, which plays in the southwest corner of the city.

Also, I have noted before (here and here) that Paris over the past few years has seemed the least sports-enthusiastic big city I have known.

And I return to the same conclusion. Either something is missing inside the heads of Parisians … or they are to be commended for leaving soccer somewhere down their list of priorities.