2023-09-20 18:00:00
On the occasion of Charles III’s visit to France, the President of the Republic gave him an original edition by the writer Romain Gary.
By VD with AFP As diplomatic tradition dictates, the President of the Republic offered gifts to Charles III this Wednesday on the occasion of his state visit to France. © LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP Published on 09/20/2023 at 6:00 p.m.
Emmanuel Macron offered on Wednesday an original edition of Roots of Heaven by Romain Gary, a plea in favor of the protection of the planet, to King Charles III who in return gave him the Letters about the English by Voltaire. Roots of Heavenwhich won the Goncourt Prize in 1956, takes place in Africa, with the central theme “the protection of the planet and in particular elephants”, indicated the French presidency, confirming information from the Parisian.
This gift also echoes the “old cooperation of the President of the Republic and King Charles in favor of biodiversity”, underlines the Élysée. During COP26 in Glasgow, in November 2021, the two leaders chaired a meeting devoted to the “Great Green Wall”, a vast development program across the entire Sahel strip aimed at combating the effects of climate change and desertification. .
An edition of Voltaire for Emmanuel Macron
Romain Gary, a French writer of Russian origin, also has links to the United Kingdom. He had joined the Free French Forces in North Africa then in London at the beginning of 1943 where he then returned as a diplomat in 1955. The president also presented the British sovereign with a gold medal, struck in the workshops of the Paris Mint and designed by the engraver Joaquin Jimenez, to celebrate his accession to the throne and Franco-British friendship.
The obverse of the medal features King Charles III in his traditional Royal Navy uniform. The reverse shows Highgrove House, the king’s personal residence. Charles III will also plant an oak offered by the estate of the Palace of Versailles, alongside the president, Wednesday afternoon in the gardens of the residence of the ambassador of the United Kingdom.
For his part, the king opted for a complete edition, published by the Voltaire Foundation of the University of Oxford, of the Philosophical letters or Letters about the English written by Voltaire while he was in exile in the British capital. In these letters, written partly in English and published in 1733-1734, the philosopher describes his admiration for the British parliamentary regime which he opposed to the absolute monarchy then reigning in France. The work, which praises a tolerant and modern society, was first banned in France. Charles III began a three-day state visit to France on Wednesday, full of solemnity and pomp, to celebrate the relaunch of Franco-British friendship after the turbulence of Brexit.
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