PARIS: King Charles III on Wednesday kicked off his first state visit to France as monarch, a rescheduled trip aimed at demonstrating the fundamentals of the cross-Channel alliance remain strong despite a litany of political tensions after Brexit.
The visit was initially planned for March and was supposed to have been Charles’ first state trip abroad since becoming monarch on the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II. But it was postponed due to widespread rioting and strikes across France against pension reforms.
The original itinerary in Paris and the southwestern city of Bordeaux — packed with ceremony and pomp in a nation which abolished its monarchy in the 1789 revolution and then executed the king — is mainly unchanged.
The monarch and his wife Queen Camilla were welcomed at Paris Orly airport by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, with the trip blessed by pristine autumn clear skies, AFP reported.
They were then to be received by French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte at the Arc de Triomphe monument in central Paris, where the royal couple and French leader will lay wreaths to the countries’ war dead.
They will then board a Citroen DS7 convertible, escorted by one hundred and thirty horses of the Republican Guard, to head up the Champs-Elysees for the Elysee Palace and meeting with Macron.
State Banquet for Charles III, Queen Camilla
The Macrons will then in the evening host the royal guests at a sumptuous state banquet at Versailles.
The menu will include delicacies including blue lobster cooked as a starter by renowned chef Anne-Sophie Pic, who has said she was inspired by the tastes of the so-called “Sun King” Louis XIV.
Guests at the dinner will include Charlotte Gainsbourg, the actor and daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, Hugh Grant, and French ex-Arsenal football manager Arsene Wenger.
