IKing Charles III is due to make his first official trip from March 26 to 28. And for this first state visit, it is in France that the monarch will go, where a dinner in his honor at the Palace of Versailles will be organized in particular.
Francophone and Francophile, the new king follows in the footsteps of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II. During her long reign, the one who died on September 8, 2022 visited France five times officially. We return here to his second trip, in 1972, during the Georges Pompidou era.
A second state visit with the European Union on everyone’s mind
As the debate over joining what was then the European Economic Community (EEC) raged in the Commons and in the press, the Queen feared the potentially catastrophic economic effects of membership on the former Crown Dominions and Colonies, especially Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The Head of State also has in mind the sacrifice of soldiers from the great overseas family, who came to the aid of the tutelary power during the two world wars. However, the nations born from the dismantling of the greatest empire of all time experience the breaking of the umbilical cord with the foster mother and the loss of their largest external market as a betrayal.
READ ALSOCharles III, Francophile and Francophone, but… Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath has nothing to do with royal excitement. He asked his friend, President Pompidou, to organize an official trip for the Queen to France to seal the new European destiny. This great Anglophile, who lifted the two Gaullist vetoes of 1963 and 1967, immediately accepted the suggestion of 10 Downing Street.
During her trip to Paris in May 1972, Elizabeth II, as usual, gave the same smile, the same friendliness, without ever revealing her concerns about the abandonment of the Commonwealth. However, aware of Her Majesty’s confusion, the hierarchs of Buckingham Palace worked behind the scenes to moderate the pro-European tone of the speeches written by the Foreign Office. Thus, the draft speech prepared by the British Foreign Office on the occasion of the Versailles banquet was censured by the Court. The statement “I am happy that our two countries are moving towards our common goal” has become “I hope that our two countries will pursue this common goal”.
Foie gras and lobster on the menu of a sumptuous State dinner
During the sumptuous State dinner offered by President Pompidou (Périgord foie gras, lobster pie, Saint-Florentin leg of lamb and iced strawberry cake in the Côtelle gallery under 480 silver candelabra), Elizabeth II declared in French: “The peoples of Western Europe, with their talent and their knowledge, have an unequaled collective heritage. What couldn’t they do if they worked together? »
The queen, who loves horses, made a point of reviewing the prestigious riders of the Cadre Noir de Saumur, custodians of the French equestrian tradition. The presentation on a Champ-de-Mars drowned by downpours is memorable. In her telegram, the Queen sent her congratulations to the riders, before concluding with so British courtesy: “ My only regret is that the weather must have brought them much discomfort…” (“My only regret is that the weather must have caused them some discomfort…”).
Even at the time of the great rapprochement, Entente Cordiale or not, the royal visit is the perfect opportunity for British diplomats to indulge in one of their favorite distractions, the “French Bashing” (“roughness of the French” ). The unwelcome dispatch devoted to French politicians sent to Buckingham Palace by the British ambassador in Paris, Sir Christopher Soames, attests to this.
Winston Churchill’s son-in-law describes Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas as “charming and full of panache, but conceited and sensitive”. The Minister of Finance, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, is “a cactus full of thorns”. Only President Pompidou finds favor in his eyes by combining “Auvergne cunning and mistrust with the exquisite and smooth side of a Rothschild banker”. As for Claude Pompidou, his wife, she is considered “shy and a tad bohemian”.
When Pompidou makes a serious misstep with the queen
To make matters worse, Georges Pompidou commits a serious protocol misstep by taking his visitor’s arm to help her up the steps of the Élysée Palace. “He didn’t know it was forbidden, neither did I,” said Claude Pompidou later. The queen did not hold it against him. The royal couple leaves France by boarding the yacht Britannia in Rouen, where Joan of Arc had been burned by the English…
Our series Royal visits
In 1957, Elizabeth II received a standing ovation for her first state visit to France
1972: Georges Pompidou’s “serious” protocol error with Elizabeth II
Mme Claude Pompidou has kept the best memories of the visit of Elizabeth II: “We went to great lengths to receive her at the Élysée, we so wanted everything to be perfect. We said to ourselves: We’ll never get it to be as good as she expects. And finally, she was absolutely charming. Much simpler than anything you can imagine. »
READ ALSOWas the Duke of Windsor, ex-Edward VIII, a traitor? For the queen, this stay was also an opportunity to see her uncle, the Duke of Windsor, in agony for the last time. Elizabeth II visited him at his residence in Neuilly. During a quarter-hour one-on-one, she talks to the 77-year-old ex-Edward VIII in a first-floor living room because he no longer has the strength to go down welcome him downstairs, as protocol would have required. She then takes tea with the Duchess Wallis Simpson, surrounded by her dogs, on the ground floor. According to a witness, the queen appeared “very shaken, very moved” by this goodbye. He dies a week later.
When Big Ben struck the twelfth stroke of midnight on December 31, 1972, anchorage to the Old Continent succeeded four hundred years of solitary travel. For better or for worse.