The 74-year-old British head of state’s rescheduled three-day trip to Paris and Bordeaux with his wife Queen Camilla, 76, starts on Wednesday, with the itinerary largely unchanged from March.
It includes set-piece ceremonial events with President Emmanuel Macron, whose unpopular pension reforms sparked the civil unrest earlier this year, as well as more informal meetings with the public.
The royal couple, Macron and his wife Brigitte will be officially welcomed at the Arc de Triomphe and lay wreaths of remembrance before a procession down the sweeping Champs-Elysees avenue.
The French leader and First Lady will host Charles and Camilla at a state banquet at Versailles, the palace west of Paris synonymous with French royalty — and the bloody republican revolution of 1789.
Other highlights include a landmark address — likely in French — by Charles to lawmakers at the Senate.
Many of the engagements turn around subjects championed by both couples, from the environment and sustainability to promoting literacy and youth entrepreneurship.
There are meetings with local communities and sports stars in the north Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, home to the national stadium and venue for next year’s Olympic Games.
At one point, the UK under Johnson even briefly sent two gunboats to the Channel Islands — the self-governing British Crown dependencies off the French coast — in a standoff over fishing licences.
Johnson’s short-lived successor Liz Truss did little to help, at one point saying “the jury’s out” when asked whether Macron — a G7 and NATO ally — was a friend or foe.
But the current incumbent of Downing Street, Rishi Sunak, has forged better relations with his counterpart in the Elysee, who like him has a finance background and penchant for sharp suits and slick social media.
As the head of a constitutional monarchy, British kings and queens in recent times have — mostly — observed a strict political neutrality.
