In the lobby of the Cherbourg ferry terminal, Anne is a bit lost. On the one hand, because it has been three years since she returned to France, but also because this Frenchwoman, who has been living in the United Kingdom for 25 years, is still a bit reeling from the news of the queen’s death.
A meeting with the queen twenty years ago
Anne is already one of those who have had the chance to meet the monarch in their lifetime. It was in 2001, the then 24-year-old young woman worked for the summer on Sark, a small island between Jersey and Guernsey. “I had heard a helicopter,” says the Frenchwoman now 45 years old“I was like ‘what the hell is that?’ and then actually, it was the queen landing.” The sovereign had come discreetly, only accompanied by her security agents, and the young woman found herself face to face with her. “She was wearing her pale green ensemble,” Anne remembers“I said ‘oh it’s very nice!’ and she said ‘thank you!'” A memory that remained etched in his memory.
Expatriated to England, Anne wanted to thank the sovereign for her welcome
Beyond this significant encounter, what moves the passenger as she gets off the ferry is thata week before the death of Elizabeth II, Anne decided to write to her. “I know the chief lieutenant who represents the queen,” Anne explains, “I emailed her literally half an hour before the death was announced saying ‘I hope the queen is ok, I just got the news that she was in hospital.'” Anne wanted to write her letter in France, with her aunt “Bibiche” who is “a big fan of the Queen” and thank the monarch who has “accompanied” since arriving in the UK 25 years ago. The two women will still write and send the letter to Buckingham Palace, but it is King Charles III who will receive it.