Saying goodbye can be a beginning.

This is what Emmanuel Macron may have said to himself when he invited Angela Merkel to her official “Au revoir” in France in the idyllic small town of Beaune.

The traffic-calmed old town, enclosed by the massive ring of ramparts, has a typically French flair.

On every second street corner, wine shops lure you to sample, cafés, restaurants and brasseries to stop off.

Michaela Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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During their stroll through town on Wednesday with Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, Angela Merkel and Joachim Sauer experience a France that the Chancellor has rarely seen in the past 16 years.

Merkel was in Paris countless times, traveling to Marseille, Biarritz, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Verdun, Compiègne and Metz.

But the time to discover the country and its people was always too short, as her longtime European advisor Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut explains.

"Charisma of a Trabant"

Macron, the fourth of the French presidents of the Merkel era, noticed what connects her with France despite the busy schedule: wine!

Beaune has been the center of the wine-growing region in Burgundy's southern Côte d'Or since the Middle Ages.

Merkel appreciates the Burgundy wines.

After negotiations at EU summits in Brussels, she and Macron liked to meet at the Hotel Amigo for a good drink.

When an EU summit coincided with her birthday in July 2020, Macron brought her several bottles from Burgundy as a gift.

The visit should be “private”, but how private can a managing Chancellor stroll in the French province?

“Merci, Madame!” And “Thank you” in German called to her onlookers.

People waved to her behind the barriers, and many shook hands in greeting.

Merkel is very popular in France.

That was not always the case. When she introduced herself to President Jacques Chirac in November 2005, the press attested her “the charisma of a Trabant”.

With Nicolas Sarkozy she grew into "Merkozy" during the debt crisis.

François Hollande not only showed her the right path on the red carpet during her inaugural visit to Berlin.

With Macron, however, she reached her European maturity.

This is what the French Secretary of State for Europe, Clément Beaune, told the FAZ

The Merkel-Macron era marked a leap forward for the EU.

The former presidential advisor, who already wrote the Sorbonne speech in 2017 and is European Secretary of State responsible for Franco-German relations, names the European reconstruction fund as the greatest achievement.

"You have never benefited from each other's weaknesses"

The often underestimated Franco-German Council of Ministers in Meseberg in June 2018 was an important step on the way to joint bonds.

“Both knew: you cannot lead Europe alone or against the other,” says Beaune.

Both respected this basic agreement, "they have never benefited from the weaknesses or difficulties of the other," he emphasizes.

Beaune mentions the agreement on top European positions with Ursula von der Leyen at the helm of the EU Commission and Christine Lagarde at the helm of the European Central Bank as further “great moments” of the Merkel-Macron era.

The Aachen Treaty is also a milestone, but it still has to take full effect.