King Charles III on Friday puts the environment at the heart of the final day of his state visit to France. He is due to hold talks with Bordeaux ecologist mayor before visiting an experimental forest and a vineyard converted to biodynamic farming.
The 74-year-old British head of state, who is a lifelong environmentalist, wraps up three days of diplomacy aimed at forging closer cross-Channel links after Brexit with a trip to the south-western city of Bordeaux.
Bordeaux is well-placed to illustrate the point hammered home throughout the visit about Britain and France's shared personal, political and cultural history.
The city became a British possession in 1152, when the future English king Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine, effectively beginning three decades of English dominance in the region, until the end of the Hundred Years' War in 1453.
The British influence remains: some 39,000 British expats live in Bordeaux – the highest number in France.
Green ambitions
In Bordeaux, King Charles will meet Pierre Hurmic, the Green Party mayor who declared a climate emergency after his surprise 2020 election victory.
After engagements in the city, including a celebration of defence ties between the two NATO allies on a British frigate, Charles will visit a research centre looking at how forests are adapting to climate change.
Huge fires, fuelled by drought and high temperatures, ripped through the Gironde region near Bordeaux last year.
His last stop before heading home is a visit to Château Smith Haut Lafitte vineyard, which has become a model of sustainable practice.
The vineyard, founded in the 14th century and named after Scottish former owner George Smith, uses organic compost and carbon dioxide recycling technology, shunning pesticides and herbicides.
On Thursday, Charles called for a new Franco-British partnership for the environment as part of a wider effort to repair frayed political ties caused by Brexit.
Speaking to lawmakers in the upper chamber of parliament, he notably called climate change "our most existential challenge of all".
Media reports have dubbed Charles Britain's first "Climate King".
(with AFP)
