Stephane Place and AFP/Photo credit: LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP 11:18 am, September 22, 2023

After two days in Paris, the King of England and the Queen are expected this Friday in Bordeaux for a state visit under the sign of ecology. They will meet the city's ecologist mayor Pierre Hurmic, visit an experimental forest and an organic vineyard.

A convinced ecologist, King Charles III placed the environment at the heart of his last stop in France, Friday in Bordeaux on former English lands, where he will meet the ecologist mayor before visiting an experimental forest and an organic vineyard.

On Thursday, in the Senate, he proposed a new Franco-British "Agreement" on climate and biodiversity, the day after the announcement by the British government of a brake on its climate policy.

In Bordeaux, his first interlocutor will be the ecologist mayor of the city Pierre Hurmic, who had declared a state of climate emergency after his election in 2020. "There are historical links between our city and Britain," he said Thursday at a press briefing before the royal visit.

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In 1152, the marriage of Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, to Henry II Plantagenet, who would become King of England two years later, marked the beginning of three centuries of English domination in the province, until the end of the Hundred Years War in 1453.

Replaced door

Nouvelle-Aquitaine remains the land of choice for a quarter of Britons living in France, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). "Beyond these historical links, we see a recognition of the way in which the city of Bordeaux has been responding, for several years, to ecological and climate issues that are of particular interest to King Charles III," added Pierre Hurmic, who plans to plant a tree with the sovereign.

The environmental cause has long been a priority for the new sovereign. He had notably spoken, at the end of 2021, at the International Climate Conference (COP) in Glasgow, Scotland, to urge heads of state to redouble their efforts in the fight against global warming.

A promoter of a "more sustainable" lifestyle, he has created an organic farm, gradually replaced fossil fuels with renewables in royal properties and he runs his old Aston Martin with surplus English white wine and whey from the cheese-making process.

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Charles III will be greeted by a children's orchestra in the courtyard of the City Hall, whose door was set on fire in March on the sidelines of a demonstration against the pension reform, a few hours before the announcement of the postponement of his first state visit to France. It was replaced at the beginning of June by a trompe-l'oeil replica.

The Place Pey-Berland, where the town hall is located near the cathedral, will be open to the public, as will the famous water mirror facing the Place de la Bourse, where the royal couple will go after a detour by the frigate HMS Iron Duke, moored since Wednesday on the banks of the Garonne. Prince William underwent military training aboard this Royal Navy ship in 2008.

Organic and pesticides

Camilla will then visit an association helping the most disadvantaged, Le Pain de l'Amitié, while Charles III will cross the river to discover an experimental forest in Floirac. Scientists from the University of Bordeaux and INRAE - National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment - have been studying the response of forests to environmental change since 2020. They are particularly interested in their adaptation to drought in a region still marked by the gigantic fires of summer 2022.

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Before leaving by plane for the United Kingdom, the royal couple will be reunited for a final stop at Château Smith Haut Lafitte, an 87-hectare winery converted to biodynamics.