Although Stéphane Bern is less fluent in the language than his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and his father, Prince Philip, it was in France where Charles had initially chosen to make his first state visit as king, at the end of March. , even before his coronation. This is without taking into account the intense mobilization against the pension reform, which forced Buckingham and the Elysée to review their plans.
After finally leaving for Germany, Charles III, accompanied by Queen Consort Camilla, arrives in Paris this Wednesday for a three-day visit, which will take him to Bordeaux. And if this is his first official trip to France as king, Charles has already come on multiple occasions, with his mother, his father, Princess Diana and then Camilla, to different corners of France.
A first official trip in 1970
Because Carlos rarely came to France alone. It was with his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, who he spoke french very well, who made his first official trip to France, in February 1970, to attend a Council of Europe conference on conservation in Strasbourg. She was then 22 years old.
The same year, the Prince of Wales represented the Queen at General de Gaulle’s funeral on 12 November at Notre-Dame. On this occasion he met with President Georges Pompidou.
In 1972, when the Queen made her second state visit to France (she would make five during her reign), young Charles was also on the trip. In 1977, the Prince of Wales returned alone to Bordeaux to visit an exhibition on British painters and meet the then mayor, Jacques Chaban-Delmas. Charles then returned to France in June 1981, just before marrying Diana.
Landing, Battle of the Somme…
In June 1982, the Prince of Wales attended military commemorations for the first time in his career, at which he would become a regular. That year we celebrated the 40th anniversary of Operation Biting, a Royal Air Force raid on the Normandy coast in February 1942.
On June 5, 1984, Charles returned to Normandy to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Allied landings. Commemorations that he attended again in 1994, in 2004 and finally in 2014.
In 2000, the prince was in Dunkirk to commemorate Operation Dynamo of 1940, chronicled in the Christopher Nolan film, Dunkirk, which allowed the evacuation of thousands of British soldiers who were retreating against the German army. “We must recognize the Dunkirk evacuation for what it was: a miracle,” he declared at the time.
Over the years, he has participated in numerous commemorations related to the two world wars, such as on November 11, 2008 in Verdun, with Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni, then on July 1, 2006 and on July 1, 2016 on the occasion of the 90th and 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, particularly deadly for the British.
“This whole indescribable tragedy moves me even more from a personal point of view and, in particular, for being here,” confesses the prince. “My wife lost three great uncles here in this terrible battle and I lost one.”
In 2017, in another commemoration, another battle of the First World War, the prince represented the queen, flanked by her two sons William and Harry, at the centenary celebrations of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, where 3,598 Canadian soldiers fell.
In 2010, Prince Charles was also present, with Camilla, to pay tribute to the 250 British soldiers who died during the First World War, found in a mass grave and moved to a cemetery in the northern town of Fromelles.
With Diana, glamor in Cannes
But the Prince of Wales has made many other visits to France in addition to military commemorations. In February 1987, on the arm of the Princess of Wales, Diana, he baptized the Airbus A320 with a bottle of champagne, in Toulouse, in the presence of Jacques Chirac, then Prime Minister.
The couple returned in May to attend a screening of the film. Whales of the month of August, at the Cannes Film Festival, and climb the stairs in notable fashion. Then in September, in Bayeux, for the celebrations of the 900th anniversary of the death of William the Conqueror.
The following year the Prince of Wales went alone to Roscoff to visit an experimental farm. In November 1988, Prince Charles and Diana were received in Blois by Jack Lang, then Minister of Culture. The local press praises this “very accessible” prince, “a witty and cheerful guest, knowledgeable about the history of France.” The couple was also received at a dinner at the Elysée by President François Mitterrand, who was then beginning his second seven-year term.
In March 1997 he returned to Paris to celebrate the birthday of the cellist Mstislav Rostropovitch, who on this occasion gave a private concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.
In February 2003, Charles met with President Jacques Chirac in Paris, during his second term. In September 2004 he returned to celebrate 100 years of the Entente Cordiale between the United Kingdom and France.
Green at COP 21
In 2015, the prince attended COP 21, which was held that year in Paris. A great defender of nature, he believes that we are “the architects of our own destruction” and that if the planet can survive drought and rising water levels, we cannot.
In May 2018, visiting Camilla, he traveled to Nice, where he paid tribute to the victims of the July 14 attack and signed the book of condolences for the attack, together with the city’s mayor, Christian Estrosi. He also took advantage of his stay in France to travel to Lyon, where he visited the Tête d’or park, the Halles Paul Bocuse, but also the Interpol headquarters. Camilla meets with an association for the protection of women victims of violence in Villeurbanne.
It is in Normandy where Charles makes his last official visit as Prince of Wales, in 2019, on the occasion of the D-Day commemorations. It was there where in 1977 he played and lost a polo match.
Source: BFM TV
