MACRON TO GET WINDSOR CARRIAGE RIDE WITH ROYAL FAMILY
King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales will welcome the president of France and his wife with a carriage procession through the streets of Windsor, as the Royal Family rolls out the red carpet for the state visit.
Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron will be welcomed to Britain with a state banquet at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, feted with a speech from the King and given a personal tour of his gardens during their trip.
Mr Macron will address Parliament, join Sir Keir Starmer for lunch with their wives and receive a personal tour of items relating to France in the Royal Collection, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
The King and Queen will show their French guests a Charabanc carriage from the Royal Mews, which was given to Queen Victoria by King Louis-Philippe of France in 1844. They will also present Fabuleu de Maucour, a horse given by Mr Macron to Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 for her Platinum Jubilee.
The inclusion of the Princess of Wales in the planned schedule will be heartening for those who were concerned about her absence from Royal Ascot last month, although her attendance at the evening banquet has not yet been confirmed.
The Macrons’ visit, which comes ahead of Donald Trump’s US state visit in September, will be based at Windsor Castle while Buckingham Palace undergoes refurbishment.
It is Mr Macron’s first state visit and will be seen as a reciprocal gesture after King Charles III made France his first state visit as monarch, visiting in September 2023.
Sources have previously described the “long friendship” between the two men, with Queen Camilla and Mrs Macron also bonding over their shared love of literature and spending time together at events including the anniversary of D Day.
The Macrons’ itinerary
Mr and Mrs Macron will land at RAF Northolt on Tuesday morning, where they will be greeted by the Prince and Princess of Wales on behalf of the King.
The four will travel to Windsor, where the King and Queen will welcome them on Datchet Road, outside the castle, while a Royal Salute is fired.
The Macrons will be invited to join the King and Queen, and the Prince and Princess of Wales for a carriage procession through the town to Windsor Castle, on a route familiar with the public for recent royal weddings.
Arriving in the Quadrangle of the castle, the party will hear the French and UK national anthems, and the president, accompanied by the King, will inspect the Guard of Honour.
After the ceremony, designed to showcase Britain’s ceremonial military capabilities, the Royal Family and their French guests will have lunch in the state dining room before viewing a special exhibition of items relating to France from the Royal Collection in the Green Drawing Room.
The King and Queen will then take the Macrons to London, where they will visit Westminster Abbey to lay a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, as is customary for modern royal visits.
They will then visit the Palace of Westminster, where the president will address Parliament in the Royal Gallery, and meet MPs and Peers.
Mr Macron will later receive Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition, and Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, at Lancaster House.
The King will host a full state banquet at Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening, at which both he and Mr Macron will deliver speeches.
The wider Royal family will attend the banquet, with guests drawn from the notable public figures of Britain and France.
The Macrons will pay a private visit to St George’s Chapel on Wednesday morning to lay flowers on the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II.
In what is thought to be a first for a state visit, the King will give Mr Macron a personal tour of the castle’s gardens, “including areas of work on nature restoration and biodiversity within the gardens and the wider Great Park”.
The King’s hosting duties will conclude there, with Mr and Mrs Macron travelling to London to visit Imperial College London to view an exhibition on AI and emerging innovators in technology, where they will meet academics and researchers.
Afterwards, they will join the Prime Minister and Lady Starmer for lunch at No 10 Downing Street.
In the evening, the Macrons, joined by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, will attend a banquet at Guildhall where Alistair King, the Lord Mayor of London, and the president will both make speeches.
On Thursday, the final day of the visit, Mr Macron will join the Prime Minister at Downing Street for a UK-France summit.
The schedule does not currently include a separate meeting with the Prince of Wales, despite the two spending time together on the world stage, including at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum (BEFF) in Monaco last month.
2025-07-04T09:01:09Z