Trip designed in part as show of friendship to reset UK-French relationship after Brexit years
King Charles was welcomed at a lavish state banquet at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday night, at the start of a state visit to reinforce the renewed London-Paris relationship after the near total collapse in trust during the Boris Johnson years after Brexit.
In Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, the famed 17th century gallery built by the “Sun King” Louis XIV to project the power and majesty of the French monarchy, King Charles told the French president, Emmanuel Macron: “Your generosity of spirit brings to mind how my family and I were so greatly moved by the tributes paid in France to my mother, the late Queen … You said that she had touched your hearts – and it was she who held France in the greatest affection.”
