Playing ping-pong, strolling through a Bordeaux vineyard, dodging raindrops at a Paris flower market — Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla paid a special state visit to France that at times looked richly royal, and at times strikingly ordinary.
There was plenty of pomp for Charles’ first journey to France as monarch, and red carpets every day. Champagne toasts at the Palace of Versailles. A standing ovation in the French Senate. Curtseying children waving British flags.
For a trip whose running theme was Charles’ concern about climate change, there was plenty of weather, too.
Wind whipped the evening gowns as guests arrived for the state dinner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte.
Rain doused well-wishers hoping for a glimpse of the royals visiting the working class town of Saint-Denis, riding a tram through the streets of Bordeaux, and admiring the flora at the Queen Elizabeth Flower Market in Paris.
The sunglasses came on for the royal couple’s final stop of the tour, to an organic vineyard. A moody llama snubbed the royal visitors, before they raised their wine glasses in farewell.
