The late queen, who died on Thursday September 8 at the age of 96, visited France more than any other foreign country, meeting each of the ten presidents who passed through the Élysée Palace during her 70 years on the throne.
“Elizabeth II mastered our language, loved our culture and touched our hearts,” Emmanuel Macron said in an English video posted on Friday.
"We are grateful for his deep affection for France," added the current President of the French Republic.
To you, she was your Queen.
To us, she was The Queen.
She will be with all of us forever.
pic.twitter.com/PaL1DRmlHK
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) September 9, 2022
The Queen made the last of her five visits to France in 2014, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
Stopping in Paris at the end of her trip, she unveiled a plaque at the flower market, renamed in her honor.
This ceremony was a "appropriate tribute" to the queen, says Mélissandre Somenzi, owner of the City of Flowers, a stall run by three generations of her family.
"The British have a weakness for flowers, and the queen in particular," she says, holding a photo of Elizabeth II visiting her stall, accompanied by the French president at the time, François Hollande, and by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.
"British visitors are always happy to see this picture when they visit the market. The Queen loved France and France loved her back," continues the trader.
Mélissandre Somenzi holds a photo of Queen Elizabeth II visiting the Paris flower market in 2014. © Benjamin Dodman, France 24
Elizabeth was a 22-year-old princess when she first visited the flower market in central Paris in 1948, a year after her wedding.
She kept fond memories of this picturesque little market on the Ile de la Cité, a few steps from Notre-Dame-de-Paris cathedral.
"I always imagine her as she was that day, as if she were right in front of me", breathes Françoise, a regular at the market, remembering her chance meeting with the young Elizabeth in 1948.
Then a teenager, Françoise had made an appointment with her classmates on the banks of the Seine, unaware that the future Queen of England would go up the river in the heart of Paris, pregnant with her first son, Charles.
"There were so many people along the Seine, I never found my friends. But I saw the queen instead!", She recalls.
Princess Elizabeth, dressed in an evening dress and a tiara, arriving at the Élysée Palace accompanied by her husband Philip, May 14, 1948. © AFP
Reflecting on Elizabeth's long reign, Françoise emphasizes her grace, tact and diplomacy.
“I feel a lot of grief today,” she explains.
"In fact, I think the whole world is grieving."
Among the visitors to the market, an American couple, Michael and Deanna Garringer, from New Mexico, pose in front of the photo of the queen posed outside.
“We were very sad to hear the news, she was so loved and respected in America,” says Deanna Garringer, for whom the long reign of the monarch has helped the United States to draw closer to its former colonial power.
"We have never known Britain without the Queen," her husband said, adding that he felt "a little worried" about the future of the monarchy without Elizabeth II.
The Queen-Elizabeth-II flower market, on the Ile de la Cité, in the center of Paris.
© Benjamin Dodman, France 24
Nearby, two Britons, Anne and her daughter Mary Jane, search in vain for the plaque inaugurated by the Queen in 2014, which, according to traders, has since been stolen.
Another more discreet one was placed, facing the Seine, with the name of Elizabeth II.
"I love this little market, it's very cute, like an English garden in the middle of Paris," says Anne, who traveled from the Paris suburbs to pay homage to the Queen.
"We felt we had to come here."
"We ended up thinking she was invincible," adds Mary Jane, a bouquet of flowers in her hand that she intends to deposit at the British Embassy.
"I grew up in a family that loved the queen," explains the young binational, switching from French to English, her eyes full of tears.
"I never met my English grandmother and the Queen was like a grandmother to me."
Mary Jane and her mother Anne bought flowers for the late Queen from the market bearing her name.
© Benjamin Dodman, France 24
Less affected by the disappearance of the sovereign, the flower seller Michel Hugot believes that her death marks the end of an era and leaves a kind of "empty", as Emmanuel Macron said in his message.
"There are plenty of queens all over the world but when we said 'the queen', we immediately thought of her."
Asked about his great popularity in France, he puts forward as probable reasons his Francophilia and his mastery of French as well as his longevity.
"Or because she was not our queen, since we guillotined Marie-Antoinette," he says.
When the queen visited the market in 2014, Michel Hugot filled his store with the most beautiful flowers and plants he had refused to sell the previous days.
"I told people: you can buy them but you can't take them until the queen has seen them," he recalls.
Above all, Michel Hugot remembers the great serenity of the queen, which contrasted with the frenzy around her: "The queen remained calm and smiling. It is this image that we will keep long after her death."
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