Elizabeth II, official visits and… from the heart
Madelen invites you to rediscover these moments in history, when Queen Elizabeth, deeply Francophile, came to Paris to meet all the French presidents, from Vincent Auriol to Emmanuel Macron.
By choosing to make his first state visit to Paris, Charles III is continuing a tradition established by his mother. In love with Paris, deeply Francophile, Elizabeth II has always taken advantage of his official stays to visit a museum or discover a mythical district of the capital. Throughout her 70-year reign, she met all the presidents of the IVe and the Ve Republic, from Vincent Auriol to Emmanuel Macron.
Madelen invites you to rediscover these moments of history, starting with the three days of 1957, from April 8 to 11, when, acclaimed by the crowd, she displayed a simplicity that the press summarized as follows: “ It’s better than a sovereign that Paris welcomes, she’s a friend “. This short trip was marked by a ballet at the Paris Opera, a walk on the Seine, a gala dinner at the Louvre, and fireworks on the Alexandre III bridge. The journey ended with the traditional dinner at the Élysée. At dessert, it was in perfect French that she thanked René Coty, the President of the Republic.
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Some images of the INA of Elizabeth II in the company of French presidents
In May 1972, Georges Pompidou continued this tradition after an equestrian show by the Cadre Noir de Saumur and the Republican Guard, on the Champ-de-Mars. Passionate about horse riding and horse racing, she took the opportunity to spend a few hours at the Longchamp racecourse. In 1992, she visited the gardens of Bagatelle, in the heart of the Bois de Boulogne, the Parc de la Villette, the Pyramid of the Louvre, and the Manet room of the Musée d’Orsay. On this occasion, François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, became his guides for a day.
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In April 2004, having come to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Entente Cordiale between the United Kingdom and France, she quietly strolled rue Montorgueil in the Les Halles district, before reaching the Arc de Triomphe to reflect on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Finally, in June 2014, at the time of the 70e anniversary of the landing in Normandy, she made a final visit to a setting which she confided that she never got tired of.
Television added these images to those of his coronation on June 2, 1953. The ceremony in Westminster Abbey was followed, worldwide, by one hundred million people. In France, the event was a first: the number of viewers, which until then had not exceeded 30,000, was multiplied by three in a few days. In the weeks before and after the coronation, sales exceeded 5,000 television sets per day.
The first stay in the capital of the one who was still a princess is less known. It dates back to May 1948, from the 14th to the 17th exactly. Six months after marrying Philip Mountbatten, she decides to play tourist in Paris. During this unofficial trip, she visited the Galliera museum and spent an afternoon wandering around the Île de la Cité in a flower market that now bears her name. She dines one evening at the Élysée, invited by Vincent Auriol, but also treats herself to a meal for two at the Tour d’Argent, where she is welcomed by Claude Terrail, the master of the place.
In a cabaret, she attended a recital by Edith Piaf, whom she did not fail to congratulate, before going to a nightclub on rue Pierre Charron where a jazz orchestra led by a visibly full future, Henri Salvador. He’s not singing yet work is health “. A motto that the sovereign could have made her own.
