Charles III’s visit to France has been postponed. When will the king come to France? And to do what ?
The Elysée preferred not to blow a little more on already incandescent embers. The visit of King Charles III to France has been postponed, by mutual agreement between France and the United Kingdom, the presidential palace announced this Friday, March 24, 2023. Initially scheduled for March 26 to 29, the arrival of the monarch in France corroborated with a new day of strike, in the already very tense context of the forced passage of the pension reform and while demonstrations are multiplying all over the country. “Finally, good news”, reacted, relieved, a parliamentarian from the majority with France info. “Walking around with a monarch in Versailles while the people are shouting: ‘We’re out of bread’, there’s no better way to call for revolution.” The fear of excesses on the sidelines of the trip to the Palace of Versailles, where a state dinner was to be given, was in particular one of the points of tension in the organization.
This crossing of the Channel was to be, for Charles III, his first state visit since his accession to the British throne, after the death of his mother Elizabeth II. At this stage, no postponement date has been clearly set. “This state visit will be rescheduled as soon as possible,” writes the Elysée. For their part, the king and his wife Camilla say they will come to France “as soon as dates can be found.”
Paris, Versailles, Bordeaux… A similar program?
The arrival of Charles and Camilla was to be a strong gesture, reminiscent of that of Elizabeth II. In 1948, she devoted her first visit outside the United Kingdom to Paris. Will the program established for the end of March be the same when the state visit can be organized again? In the capital, the monarch was to be welcomed at Orly by Elisabeth Borne, before finding Emmanuel Macron at the Arc de Triomphe for a commemoration ceremony and a wreath laying. A descent from the Champs-Elysées to the Elysée was then to take place, followed by a speech by King III to the senators and deputies, in the Senate. At the same time, Camilla was to go to the Musée d’Orsay with Brigitte Macron to inaugurate the Monet-Degas exhibition. Two cultural stages were then on the program: first at 19M, a gallery dedicated to fashion professions, then at the CentQuatre cultural center to meet Anne Hidalgo, as well as at least two big bosses: Sébastien Bazin from the Accor Hotel group and Alexandre Bompard of Carrefour. In the evening, a State banquet was to be organized in the luxurious setting of the Palace of Versailles.
After Paris, the royal couple was to leave for the south-west of France. A stage in Gironde had been announced with a trip near Bordeaux to observe the damage caused by the forest fires last summer. The royal couple were due to attend the opening of the British consulate in Bordeaux and meet members of the French and British communities before visiting an organic vineyard. On the return to Paris, a visit to the Elizabeth II flower market on the Ile de la Cité, near Notre-Dame-de-Paris cathedral was to conclude the visit. Will the program be the same?