C’est vrai… the French can’t get enough of all things British

King Charles’ wildly successful ‘entente royale’ visit to France – during which even Parisians greeted him with cheers of ‘Vive le Roi!’ – is proof that my fellow countrymen are ardent but shy anglophiles, writes Benedicte Paviot

King Charles greets crowds at a Parisian flower market named after his late mother (PA)

A little against the odds – and certainly against nation moods – King Charles’s three-day state visit to France has been an unmitigated triumph.

It was by no means guaranteed. The visit had been planned for earlier this year, the new king’s first engagement abroad, but it had to be cancelled amid violent nationwide clashes over pension reforms. During several days of rioting, police fired tear gas at thousands of protestors on the very streets where French royalty had been guillotined two centuries ago. As backdrops to a royal visit go, “les optiques” would have been foreboding, to say the least.

And then there’s hundreds of years of well-documented love-hate relations between our two countries to take the edge off any entente cordiale. But this past week, we’ve seen only a love-love relationship.

Loud cries of “Vive le Roi!” from the crowd as President Macron and the King walked from the Élysée Palace to the British Embassy were a revelation – an unguarded reaction and all the more moving for it. But, truth be known, the French secretly love all things royal – and, if they’d dare admit it, most things British, too.

Ask the citoyens of South Kensington, or the hundreds of thousands of French who live in the UK, or the millions who visit every year. Most will grudgingly concede to being anglophiles.

Take Marks & Spencer. The French absolutely love it – its pre-packed sandwiches, its ready meals, and especially its sausages. Sir Stuart Rose, the former M&S executive chairman, once told me the British chain made a major mistake in 2001 closing down their highly successful shops in the heart of Paris. More have closed in the years since, the company says, due to “Brexit-related food shortages”. It’s been a blow to Britain’s soft power.

The King’s charm offensive this week was greatly helped by his frequent deployment of his excellent French – notably during a toast at the magnificent banquet in the Palace of Versailles, and his eloquent and well-crafted speech in the Senate.

His humour, too, was well judged, praising French politicians en français about their hosting of the Rugby World Cup: “Pas de coups bas, et que le meilleur gagne!” (No low blows and may the best win!). Cue yet more laughter and applause.

This week, the French have been witness to a monarch who is not only a francophone but a great francophile, like his much-respected and beloved late mother, about whom Macron paid grand tribute after her death, saying: “To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was The Queen.”

For her part, Queen Camilla has impressed with her Dior-dressed elegance – and sense of fun, unabashedly playing ping-pong with Madame Macron. And excited whispers on the nightly news, asking “Qui est l’homme en kilt dans l’ombre du roi?” (“Who is the man in a kilt in the shadow of the monarch?”) – answer, the King’s dashing equerry, Major Johnny Thompson – have only heightened the French’s love-in.

Does it matter? After years of Brexit animosity and ill-feeling over the British government’s approach to the issue of Channel migrants, this state visit has given the French a chance to let down their guard a little. The UK’s recent return to the Horizon science programme has raised hopes, once seemingly gone for good, that bridges could be rebuilt between Britain and the EU.

What might now be called “entente royale” bodes well for next year’s 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale. May 2024 will be a chance to mark long-standing and enduring friendship, deeply rooted in joint histories and common values.

And if Marks & Spencer could be persuaded to reopen some of its shuttered stores, the French would break out the Union flag bunting. Well, peut-être…

Benedicte Paviot is the UK correspondent for France 24