Royal navy! Camilla gets a kiss from Emmanuel Macron at Palace of Versailles while matching with Brigitte in blue ballgowns – as King Charles is greeted by President ahead of glittering State banquet attended by stars including Hugh Grant and Mick Jagger

Queen Camilla dazzled in diamonds and sapphires tonight as President Emmanuel Macron kissed her hand and  King Charles declared their welcome to France ‘magnifique’.

Their Majesties were guests of honour at a glittering state banquet in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles at the end of a whirlwind first day of their inaugural state visit to France.

In fact the wind was very much literal too, as the gusty conditions forced several guests to struggle in their finery. 

Among them was French royalty, actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, in a black dress split to the thigh which barely covered her modestie, as the locals say.

Celebrity guests included Sir Mick Jagger, who owns a chateau in France, French-British actress Emma Mackey, as well as footballing legends with ties to England and France including, Patrick Vieira,  Arsene Wenger and Didier Drogba. 

Camilla and Brigitte, 70, matched in navy ball gowns while Charles and Emmanuel opted for black bow ties and dinner jackets.

In a nod to her hosts, Camilla dressed in Dior and was draped with a stunning parure of jewellery inherited from her late mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth.

She and the King were greeted by Macron and his wife, Bridgette, on the red carpet.

And in a sweet moment – which summed up the Entente Cordiale of the day – Mme Macron could be seen carefully adjusting Camilla’s cape after it slid down her shoulder and she struggled to fix it.

British and French celebrities dressed to the nines for the glamourous dinner, with head of Rothschild & Co, David de Rothschild, and his daughter Louise, joining the likes of Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and billionaire Bernard Arnault.

Every aspect of Their Majesties French state visit has been designed to bolster the ‘special bond’ between Britain and France.

The menu at tonight’s black tie state banquet at the Palace of Versailles is a masterclass in diplomatic relations.

Off the list of delicacies is the merest hint of foie gras. The King has banned the duck liver speciality from being served at his own residences due to the cruelty involved in its production.

Even the humble asparagus, which the chefs had originally planned to serve in March, has been binned as it is no longer in season.

It is understood the French team were keen to showcase the wide range of home-grown produce in their country and respect the King’s passion for environmentally-friendly dishes.

But there will be plenty of mushrooms, a favourite of Charles and Camilla, as they ‘remind them of the late Queen, Elizabeth II’, according to a French government source.

The King was out foraging for wild mushrooms at Balmoral when he discovered that his late mother was dying.

The menu has been devised by three leading French Michelin-starred kitchen maestros – Yannick Alleno, Anne-Sophie Pic and Pierre Herme – who sent their menu in advance to London for approval.

They are well known for using foie gras in their cooking, with pastry chef Mr Herme using it in his chocolate macaroons.

A government source in Paris said: ‘The King has banned foie gras from his residences in Britain, so there was no possibility of him eating it in France.

‘He doesn’t want asparagus that is out of season either, because shipping it in is environmentally damaging, but there will be a mushroom gratin, which was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth.

‘We understand that Charles was out foraging for mushrooms just before his mother’s death in Scotland’.

There will be a touch of English cheese to delight the royal entourage and dedicated Anglophiles.

Instead, Le Menu at Versailles will be a starter of blue lobster and pot crab with a veil of fresh almonds and peppermint, created by Ms Pic; a main course of Bresse chicken with corn and a porcini mushroom gratin cooked by Mr Alleno; a 30-month old Comte, Stichelton English blue; an Isfahan Persian macaroon for desert, Mr Herme’s signature pudding inspired by the ancient city in Iran, and containing rose water, raspberries, and lychees.

Wines costing more than £400 a bottle will also be also served: Pol Roger Cuvée Winston Churchill 2013 Champagne at more than £500-a-magnum, Batard Montrachet Grand Cru 2018 costing £430 and a £400 Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2004.

 

Organisers invited a range of celebrities to eat and drink with King Charles and Queen Camilla in the lavish Hall of Mirrors – a space designed to reflect the omnipotence of the ‘Sun King’, Louis XIV.

Jagger, 80, travelled from his own stately home – the Chateau de Fourchette (Fork House) in Indre-et-Loire – for the evening.

Billionaire Bernard Arnault, 74, is the head of the LVMH luxury goods conglomerate, and owns multiple homes around the world, including mansions in Paris and Bordeaux.

Rich lists regularly put him at number one, and in 2012 he was made Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire ‘for services to business’ by the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Franco-British actors on the 150-strong guest list include Charlotte Gainsbourg, 52, and Emma Mackey, 27, from the Netflix series Sex Education, and actor Hugh Grant, 63.

Sports personalities who are invited include former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, 73, and former Arsenal and France midfielder Patrick Vieira, 47, along with former Chelsea and Ivory Coast striker, Didier Drogba, 45, who previously played for Marseille.

Earlier today, Charles touched down in Paris and was greeted with shouts of ‘King’ from balconies as he and Camilla received a rapturous welcome upon their arrival.

The King beamed and waved at the adoring crowds as he walked through the streets of Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron before they exchanged gifts with one another and held talks at the Elysee Palace ahead of a lavish state dinner later this evening.

Inside the residence, the King and President met staff and their families and planted a tree in the garden, following a long tradition begun by the late Queen Elizabeth .

In a sign of the warmth of their relationship, Mr Macron had gifted the oak sapling to the King from his Versailles estate and wanted to join him for the ceremonial moment.

The garden already features five trees planted by British Royals, including three by the late Queen. They include a Persian Highwood from her first state visit to France in 1957, a Gingko Biloba from a 1972 visit and a Cork Oak from her final visit to France.

To shouts from onlookers of ‘vive le roi’ the King had a brief walkabout through one of the more exclusive streets of central Paris.

The two men were walking the short distance from the Elysée Palace to the British ambassador’s residence in the Rue du Faubourg St-Honoré just a couple of hundred metres away.

As they started off amid tight security the walk was a sterile business by the standards of British royalty. The street had been closed off to the public, and the only onlookers were office workers peering down from the balconies above. Sporadic applause greeted their progress, polite rather than enthusiastic.

But then, as they neared the residence, real crowds appeared, with real enthusiasm.

The King pointed to them, and the two heads of state looked at each other and said: ‘Shall we say hello?’ – which they duly did.

One woman in the crowd, who shook hands with the King and gave her name as Sophie, from Lyon, said: ‘I came here to see the King and because I think it’s an important and memorable moment for our two countries, especially since Brexit .

‘For my part, it [coming here] was in some sense also a tribute to Queen Elizabeth.’

She added: ‘People here still have an affection for the British crown.’

Charles and Camilla arrived shortly before 2pm on a private chartered flight from Farnborough, travelling on what is dubbed the ‘baby Voyager’ airbus plane to Paris Orly airport, where they were officially welcomed by the French Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, on behalf of President Macron and the French government.

They were also received by foreign James Cleverly, the UK’s ambassador to France Dame Menna Rawlings and the French Ambassador to the UK, Hélène Tréheux-Duchêne.

Camilla was a pop of colour in an elegant dusky pink wool crepe coat dress by Fiona Clare, and a pink beret-shaped hat by milliner Philip Treacy, which she held on to tightly due to blustery conditions as they walked along a red carpet, brushed to perfection earlier.

The royals were then whisked off in the State Bentley to the Arc de Triomphe where they were greeted by the President Macron, 45, and his wife Brigitte, 70, for a ceremony of remembrance and wreath laying at the iconic monument. 

The President gave a small bow to the King and Queen, while Bridgette Macron – more business-like than Camilla in a navy jacket and short blue skirt with heels – gave Camilla a friendly kiss on each cheek. President Macron was then seen chuckling with the Queen as she repeatedly tried to keep her hat in place.

President Macron and his wife, Mme Macron, greeted their guests warmly, having posted a glowing video tribute to the British monarch – showing Charles in France over the decades – on their social media outlets earlier. It read: ‘You visited as a Prince, you return as a King. Your Majesty, welcome.’

As the King and President laid the wreath as a both nations’ air forces conducted a magnificent fly past, soaring over the famous Parisian landmark. As part of the ceremony, Charles was invited by the president to symbolically light the monument’s eternal flame which burns in memory of those who died in the First and Second World Wars.

A military band played the national anthems of Britain and France before His Majesty was escorted by the President to inspect the soldiers, consisting of the Regimental Band of the Garde Républicaine, the French Colour Part and the Tri-Service Guard of Honour. Meanwhile, the Queen chatted enthusiastically with Madame Macron.

After the Guard Inspection, The King and President Macron made their way to the Plateau, the centre piece of the Arc de Triomphe, where they stopped at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Both men bowed in silence in front of the eternal flame under the war memorial, before together laying a wreath in tribute to those who perished in the First and Second World Wars.

Nestled in the floral arrangement of white and red roses, the King placed a handwritten card with: ‘In everlasting remembrance’, written in English and French.

After the lighting, the bugle call ‘Aux Morts’, the French equivalent of ‘The Last Post’, meaning ‘to the dead’, was sounded and followed by a minute’s silence.

The British national anthem was followed by the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, as a stunning flypast of the Patrouille de France and the Red Arrows roared above the Champs-Élysées.

The Arc was the location for the Ceremonial Arrival of Queen Elizabeth II for Her Majesty’s final State Visit to France in 2014.

The President of the flame committee then invited Charles and Camilla to sign the ‘Livre d’Or’ or the ‘Golden Book’, to mark their visit.

Their Majesties, accompanied by the President and Madame Macron, then left in a waiting car to be driven down the Champs-Elysée toward the Elysée Palace, escorted by two Squadrons of the Mounted Regiment of the Garde Républicaine.

The King presented President Macron with a photography album containing images of the two of them.

Charles, 74, also gave Mr Macron a complete edition of French author Voltaire’s writings as they met at the Elysee Palace.

The complete edition included Voltaire’s Lettres sur les Anglais, otherwise known as Lettres philosophiques.

The works have been edited by Prof Nicholas Cronk, director of the Voltaire Foundation and a leading UK academic at Oxford University.

Having started work in 1968, the complete works, comprising 205 volumes, was only recently finished in April 2022.

In return, Mr Macron gave the King a golden coin from the Monnaie de Paris featuring Charles’s portrait.

He also gave him a first-edition prize-winning French novel – Romain Gary’s novel Les Racines (The Roots of Heaven), which won the Prix Goncourt, France’s highest literary award in 1956.

The King and Mr Macron arrived by car at the Elysee together just before 4pm, closely followed by the Queen and Brigitte Macron.

The foursome exchanged pleasantries as they stood at the end of a red carpet in the courtyard, laughing and joking together.

They then made their way up the red carpet, pausing to pose for photographs before Charles and Camilla led the way inside.

Mr Macron appeared particularly animated, joking with the gathered media.

Inside, the King and Mr Macron posed for photographs in the lavishly decorated Salon d’ore which is used as the President’s main office.

As they entered the room, Charles jokingly asked if the waiting photographers were always there.

The men posed before the French and EU flags before taking their seats for a private discussion.

The King and Mr Macron left on foot at 16.40, headed for the UK ambassador’s residence where they will plant an oak tree presented as a gift by the French President.

The two men appeared to be in deep conversation as they strolled out of the grounds together.

The couples will then meet a number of community sports groups and sports stars as France hosts the Rugby World Cup and prepares to host the Olympics next year.

After travelling to Bordeaux, the King and Queen will meet emergency workers and communities affected by the Bordeaux wildfires in 2022, highlighting how to tackle climate change.

While in the region the King will also meet British and French military personnel as well as attend a GREAT campaign where British and French businesses will be showcased.

Finishing off their jam-packed visit, they will take a trip to an organic vineyard before flying back to Scotland where they have spent the summer.