The British royal couple will travel well to France. Originally scheduled for the spring but postponed due to protests against the pension reform, the visit of the sovereign Charles III and his wife Camilla will take place from September 20 to 22. This diplomatic trip was announced this Thursday, August 24 by Buckingham and the Élysée.
As already envisaged at the end of March, they will travel to Paris and Bordeaux, the royal palace said in a press release. The visit “will testify to the depth of the historical ties that unite our two countries and our two peoples”, estimated for its part the French presidency.
This trip will thus take place just over a year after the accession to the throne of Charles III in the wake of the disappearance of Queen Elizabeth II, on September 8, 2022. “This visit is an honor done to France , while our country will also host the Rugby World Cup. It will testify to the depth of the historical ties that unite our two countries and our two peoples, “commented the Elysee in a press release.
For the two heads of state, it “will be an opportunity to pursue their common commitment to the preservation of nature, a subject on which they have cooperated closely in recent years”, added the French presidency. “This visit will celebrate the shared history, values ??and culture of the UK and France,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
Beyond the name of the cities, the two parties did not give details on the program of this visit but that of the aborted trip provided for a ceremony of remembrance at the Arc de Triomphe with Emmanuel Macron and a speech by the king in the Senate. in front of deputies and senators. A state banquet in honor of the royal couple was then announced at the Palace of Versailles and Charles III, 74, was also to go to Bordeaux, for a stage very focused on the environment, his passion for more than 50 years.
Testimony of the long Franco-British friendship, Charles III should have made his first state visit abroad in France at the end of March as sovereign but, two days before his arrival, President Emmanuel Macron had to announce his postponement. At issue: the risk of violence and disruption around this trip, in the midst of a protest movement against the pension reform.
According to Downing Street, it was Paris that had requested this adjournment and the monarch had finally gone directly to Germany, a trip which was initially to follow his stay in France.
This royal visit, even before Charles’ coronation on May 6 at Westminster Abbey, was scheduled to come a few weeks after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s visit to France, a sign of a warming between the two countries after cooler relations. with his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson.
As crown prince, Charles had gone on official trips to French soil 34 times since the 1970s, from Nice to Roscoff in Brittany, via Normandy, Paris or Lyon. He had been invited by President Macron after the death of Elizabeth II, a Francophile and French-speaking queen who had made five state visits to France during her 70-year reign.
Since his ascent to the throne, Charles has made few trips abroad. In addition to his state visit to Germany, in June he made a private visit to Romania, where he owns a property, without his 76-year-old wife Camilla.
