Arthur De Laborde 06h17, September 09, 2022
While the whole world learned of the death of the British sovereign this Thursday, it is time for tributes.
The opportunity to recall the link between France and Elizabeth II, whose attachment was illustrated throughout her 70 years of reign.
From her 22 years until her death, a look back at the queen's travels in France.
The love story between Elizabeth II and France began long before her accession to the throne in 1948. It was in France that she made her first official trip without her parents abroad.
At 22, the one who is still a princess discovered, among other things, the castles of Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte, where she attended a private concert by Edith Piaf and a play by Jean-Paul Sartre.
Nine years later, she returned to France, this time as sovereign.
"Our emotion will be shared by my entire people. It is he who greets you in us and he fully returns to you all the sympathy and affection that you show us", she had declared, in French.
Memorable journeys for the French
The Queen loves France, which returns it to her, like the onlookers who came in large numbers to see the monarch aboard a convertible Citroën when she arrived in Paris for her second state visit in 1972. "She will pass slowly enough so that we can see it. This is the second time that I have seen it. It is always so pretty, "confided a spectator.
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22 years later, Elizabeth II is in Calais to inaugurate the Channel Tunnel, a symbol of Franco-British ties.
"During the present centuries, at the height of the ordeal, the combination of French elan and British pragmatism has worked wonders. The tunnel proclaims this simple truth. Let us continue today to make common cause for the benefit of the all of humanity,” she proclaimed.
And it was on the occasion of the D-Day commemorations in 2014 that the Queen made her fifth and last official visit to France.
Elizabeth II had not failed to recall her affection for the country of the language of Molière.