A French seaside resort has renamed its airport after the late Queen Elizabeth II, with her son King Charles’s blessing.
Le Touquet received the official support of the king on Monday for the change, the northern resort’s town hall said in a statement.
“The international airport of Le Touquet Paris-Plage is about to undergo a historic transformation by taking on the name ‘Elizabeth II International Airport of Le Touquet Paris-Plage’,” it said.
“This is a tribute to a great Queen and her uncle who had a fondness for France, as well as a recognition of the ‘most British of French resorts’,” it added, saying an inauguration date had yet to be set.
The authorities had requested the name change just days after the queen died on 8 September last year aged 96. The town hall noted that the queen’s uncle, Edward VIII, used to travel over by plane to enjoy horseback riding and sand yachting, sometimes accompanied by his niece.
Le Touquet, about an hour’s drive south of Calais, is a popular resort where the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte, have a home.
By the 1900s, the area’s attractive forested seaside location had become so popular with Parisiens that it became known as Le Touquet-Paris Plage.
The airport opened in the 1930s and swiftly became a favoured destination for British tourists. In the 1950s the airport was France’s third busiest after Orly outside Paris and Nice on the French Riviera.
Later this year, Le Touquet will host the England rugby team for its training camp for the World Cup starting on 8 September and running to 28 October.
The area was established in 1837 when a notary called Alphonse Daloz bought 1,600 hectares (3,952 acres) of dunes on the Canche estuary for 6,005 Napoleons (Ffr120,000).
