Ask for the program! Bunckingham Palace has unveiled what awaits Charles III on his first overseas state visit as sovereign, to France later this month. It will start in the capital, before taking a little getaway on the banks of the Garonne.
The King will arrive in Paris on Sunday March 26. Welcomed Monday morning with his wife Camilla by President Emmanuel Macron, he will participate in a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, with laying of a wreath in front of the flame of the unknown soldier. This will be followed by a descent from the Champs Elysées to the Elysée Palace by a procession with the Republican Guard.
After an interview, the King will proceed to the Senate, where he will be the first British sovereign to address the Upper House of Parliament. Meanwhile, Camilla and Brigitte Macron will inaugurate the Manet/Degas exhibition which opens to the public the next day at the Musée d’Orsay.
The king and his wife will then visit 19M, a structure launched by Chanel in the north-east of Paris to bring together its crafts houses. They will also visit the Centquatre cultural center in the presence of the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo. At the British Embassy, the King will meet entrepreneurs active in the ecological transition.
Train, tram and cannelés
The day will end with a banquet at the Palace of Versailles, and royal stomachs will be served just as well on Tuesday 28 March. Head to Bordeaux, by train – the French city, according to Buckingham Palace, which has the largest concentration of Britons. Charles and Camilla will travel by tram to Place de la Bourse, where the famous water mirror is located on the banks of the Garonne.
They will walk to the Hôtel de Ville for a reception with the mayor Pierre Hurmic, with a stop to taste cannelés, small cakes from Bordeaux. They must also inaugurate the new British consulate.
The queen consort will then visit a center for helping families in financial difficulty and the homeless, while the king will visit Landiras, a locality badly affected by the fires last summer. Charles will meet rescue workers as well as participants in forest restoration projects promoting biodiversity.
The flower market, then Berlin
The couple will visit a sustainable vineyard, identified as Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte in the French press, which produces its solar energy, captures its carbon emissions and manufactures beauty products with waste from winemaking.
On Wednesday 29, Charles and Camilla will meet the public at the Elizabeth II flower market on the Ile de la Cité in central Paris. It was renamed in the presence of the late sovereign during her last visit in 2014.
The royal couple will then fly to Berlin. In the German capital, they will be welcomed by a ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate, before a banquet at Bellevue Palace, the official residence of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. They will address the Bundestag on Thursday before a visit to Hamburg on Friday to discuss green energy in particular.