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King Charles had originally intended to make France his first trip abroad as monarch but his would-be host, President Emmanuel Macron, was forced to cancel in March because of violent protests over an unpopular pension reform.
Macron will be hoping to forget that diplomatic setback when he welcomes King Charles for an elaborate three-day visit that starts on Wednesday and is intended to showcase the historic, cultural and economic ties between Britain and France.
Security preparations have been intense, with between 8,000 and 10,000 police officers mobilised just as authorities are under pressure to secure other high-profile events in France. The Rugby World Cup is continuing, and Pope Francis will be in Marseille over the weekend.
“France needs to get this right — it was embarrassing to have to cancel the royal visit last time,” said Georgina Wright, an expert in Franco-British relations at the Institut Montaigne think-tank.
The 74-year-old king, a fluent French speaker, and the 45-year-old president already know each other quite well, according to aides, and will open the visit with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe.
They will then parade down the Champs Elysées, accompanied by the horse-mounted Republican Guard and fighter planes from the two countries’ air forces.
The visit follows an improvement in bilateral relations since the painful period when the UK was negotiating its exit from the EU, and Paris did not see then prime minister Boris Johnson as a serious diplomatic partner.
In March, Macron and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak unveiled new co-operation on curbing cross-Channel migration, energy and defence at the first Franco-British summit in five years.
The two former bankers in their forties have forged a better relationship, facilitated by Sunak’s more rational approach to dealing with EU matters, although tensions remain over some issues such as policing the Channel to prevent small boat crossings to the UK.
Although King Charles plays no political role in the British system, the monarch and the royal family remain potent symbols that resonate abroad. Even in staunchly republican France, where revolutionaries beheaded their king in 1793, many remain fascinated by the Windsors.
Ahead of the royal visit, French media have gone into overdrive, with TV news channels preparing round-the-clock coverage of every detail, including the entrance of VIPs to the lavish state dinner in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.
“It is not as if the French envy Britain with its monarchy, but they do get excited about the royal family and the rituals around it,” said Wright.
Macron ably channelled that sense when he recorded a moving message addressed to Britons after Queen Elizabeth II’s death last year. “With her, France and the United Kingdom shared not just an ‘entente cordiale’, but a warm, sincere and loyal partnership,” he said. “To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was THE Queen,” he said.
On Thursday, King Charles and Queen Camilla will visit Notre-Dame cathedral, which is still being rebuilt after a devastating fire in 2019, before heading to Bordeaux on Friday to see a vineyard, a nod to the monarch’s interest in farming and its large British expatriate community.
The schedule also alludes to memorable moments from the Queen’s 13 trips to France, such as a stop she made at a flower market on Paris’s l’île de la Cité on her first visit in 1948 as a young princess. The market was renamed in her honour in 2014.
Beyond the ceremony, the visit will feature more explicitly political moments, such as when King Charles gives a speech to the French Senate on Thursday and two one-to-one meetings with Macron.
The pair will discuss biodiversity, climate change and financing the green transition, according to the Élysée Palace, while taking stock of the bilateral relationship and its future. They will also discuss pressing geopolitical matters including the war in Ukraine and the recent spate of coups in the Sahel region of Africa.
Additional reporting by George Parker in London and Adrienne Klasa in Paris
