“She was deeply Francophile, Francophone and therefore deeply European”greets Jack Lang, former Minister of Culture after the death Thursday, September 8 of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96. “She was curious about everything. I spent hours and hours with her chatting about history, culture and even politics”says Jack Lang.
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franceinfo: What memories do you keep of Elizabeth II. Was she really a friend of France?
Jack Lang: Very deeply, first she spoke magnificent French and then she knew our story like the back of her hand. Our history which was at the same time the history of England. She loved our culture, our way of life, our way of being. She was deeply Francophile, Francophone and therefore deeply European.
Did you meet her several times, especially when you were François Mitterrand’s Minister of Culture?
François Mitterrand had asked me during the Queen’s three-day state visit to France in 1992, to accompany her, to be her knight in service and I kind of lived with her for three days. I took him to visit certain monuments in Paris. We made a trip through France, notably to Val-de-Loire, to Blois, then to Tours and finally, I accompanied her to Bordeaux where the Britannia was waiting for us, which has now disappeared and on board which she had offered a farewell dinner to President Mitterrand and his wife Danielle Mitterrand.
“She is a very dignified woman, a woman who respects a kind of ancestral conformity and at the same time very simple and direct. She was curious about everything.”
I spent hours and hours with her chatting about history, culture and even politics.
Was it a moment that allowed you to really discover her?
After this trip to Blois and Tours, she was a little exhausted, I had taken advantage of her a little and when she arrived on the plane in Tours to go to Bordeaux, she relaxed like everyone else. between us could do it, she took off her shoes to everyone’s amazement. She did it in a royal way in a simple and straightforward way. During this state trip, during the dinner she offered to President Mitterrand at the residence of the ambassador of Great Britain, at one point, she poured out, it was the horrible year [Annus horribilis en 1992] with all her misfortunes that had befallen her, especially the Diana affair. She spoke of her pain, her suffering, her anguish and we were amazed that she could confidently speak so freely about what she felt in the depths of her heart.
What did François Mitterrand think of Queen Elizabeth II?
François Mitterrand, who frequented her a lot, during the inauguration of the Channel Tunnel and during his travels in Great Britain, said that he had observed this woman, haughty and apparently hieratic, was at the same time a very deeply kind woman. , I believe him. Charles, who will succeed the queen, is a Francopphile and French-speaking man, he has ideas about architecture, the environment and modernity. The question I ask myself: will he succeed in containing his ideas and keep this obligation of reserve to exercise this function of arbitration or will he from time to time express his personal feelings?