If the visit of King Charles and Queen Camilla had been made impossible last March, in Paris by the mobilization against the pension reform which had paralyzed the capital, the trip which will finally take place on September 20, 2023 for 2 days will be no less difficult for the young monarch… He who has already been sent to the capital by her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, on many occasions to represent her, will reconnect with painful memories when he sets foot on French soil…
His great-uncle and Diana
It was in fact in Paris that two of the great tragedies of his personal life took place, as our colleagues at the Daily Mail recall. First, the crisis of the abdication of his great-uncle, Edward VIII, in 1936, who lived until his last breath in a private mansion in the Bois de Boulogne. Black beast of the royal family after having endangered the monarchy by his marriage to Wallis Simpson, Charles had met him at his home in the 70s, and had admitted that the living environment of the former king, cut off from his country and his people, he had then turned the heart and inspired with pity.
A few years later, in 1997, it was Charles himself who also crossed the Channel to collect the remains of Lady Diana, his ex-wife, from the Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital. There mother of princes William and Harry had died in the night of August 31, 1997 following a car accident, under the Alma tunnel.
The visit program
Fortunately, King Charles will be very busy during his stay in France on September 20, 21 and 22. He must first go to the foot of the Arc de Triomphe, on the Champs-Élysées, then towards the Élysée and the British embassy. In the evening, a state dinner in a royal atmosphere at the Palace of Versailles was organized. The next day, the couple will visit the Île de la Cité flower market before going to Notre-Dame, then to the Natural History Museum. Finally, Charles and Camilla will embark on Friday for Bordeaux, before returning to London.
F.A.