After being forced to cancel a state visit to Paris earlier this year because of violent protests in the French capital, King Charles and Queen Camilla will fly to France on September 20th for a three-day tour, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
Aides have released the full schedule for the trip that will see the King make history when he delivers a speech – some of it in French – to the Senate. The French parliament consists of two chambers, the National Assembly and the Senate, and Charles will be the first British royal to address Senators and members of the National Assembly in the chamber which sources say indicate the strength of the Anglo French relationship.
The late Queen Elizabeth addressed the Senate in 2014, delivering her speech in French to an impressed audience.The highly anticipated trip is the first state visit to France since 2014 when the late Queen Elizabeth visited the country with Prince Philip.
At a palace briefing earlier this week, the King’s deputy private secretary Chris Fitzgerald said the trip will “celebrate Britain’s relationship with France, marking out shared histories, culture and values.”
The visit takes place at the request of the British Government following an invitation from the French President Emmanuel Macron and comes six months after the newly crowned king and queen carried out their first state visit to Germany during which the King addressed the Bundestag.
Following their arrival in Paris, the King and Queen will attend a ceremony of Remembrance and a wreath laying at the Arc De Triomphe before processing down the Champs Élysées towards the Élysée Palace. Crowds are expected to line the route and a spectacular fly past will also take place.
At the Élysée the King will have a bilateral meeting with the President before attending a state banquet with the Queen that night at the Palace of Versailles hosted by President Macron and his wife Brigitte.
After spending Wednesday and Thursday in the French capital, Charles and Camilla will travel by train to Bordeaux to learn more about the area and its famous wine making industry.
Aides said their majesties are looking forward to the trip, and hope to meet as many people as they can. Several walkabouts have been planned within the itinerary which will see the couple carrying out up to seven engagements a day.
Following the success of the state visit to Germany, which aides say has yielded a close and successful partnership between Britain and Germany, there are high hopes that this state visit will deepen the already cordial relationship between Britain and France. Palace aides described the King’s relationship with President Macron who attended Charles’s coronation and the late Queen Elizabeth’s funeral as “warm.”
President Macron has been vocal in his support for the king, tweeting on the day of the coronation, “Proud to be by your side on this historic day.” It is understood that President Macron will gift a tree from the Palace of Versailles to the king during the visit, which Charles will plant at the British Ambassador’s residence.
The King and the Queen, who are currently at Balmoral on their summer vacation and will take time out of their annual stay for the state visit, have been involved in the planning of the schedule which will incorporate themes and causes they have championed over the years.
The carefully-coordinated program will focus on sustainability, climate change and security and defence, helping young people and the importance of sport. Charles and Camilla will meet community sports groups and well-known athletes, to show the benefits sports can bring, particularly to young people, as France hosts the Rugby World Cup and prepares to host the Olympics.
During the visit Charles and President Macron will also attend a sustainability reception for British and French business leaders, to hear more about their plans to invest to protect biodiversity and combat climate change.
Meanwhile, Camilla’s interests in literacy and her campaign to support vulnerable women will also be reflected in the itinerary. Together with Brigitte, she will also launch a new Franco-British literary prize at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
From Paris the royals will take the train to Bordeaux where they will meet emergency workers and communities affected by the wildfires that ravaged the area in 2022 at the Forêt Experimentale. They will also meet UK and French military personnel aboard a frigate to learn more about how the two nations are collaborating on defence.
While in Bordeaux the king and Queen will attend a GREAT campaign to showcase French and British businesses. There will also be a visit to an organic vineyard where Charles and Camilla will learn about sustainable wine making.
It will be Charles’s 35th official visit to France and the Queen’s ninth. Charles and Camilla last visited the country in 2019 attending a service to mark the 75th anniversary of the Normandy Landings.
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