Queen of the World by Robert Hardman

Author:Robert Hardman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2018-09-24T16:00:00+00:00

VIVE LA DIFFERENCE

The tone of the visit had been firmly established. Now it was time for both sides to enjoy the ambience and the mutual admiration. The following day, the Queen was feted at the Hôtel de Ville as she addressed the municipal council of Paris. In the same rooms where Edward VII had proclaimed the Entente Cordiale in 1904, the Queen saluted Paris with some of the more flowery language that she and her advisers had expunged from the state-banquet speech the night before. ‘For us, she is like no other city; rather, she is a light that shines in the imagination,’ she noted, once more in fluent French. ‘She is timeless, yet she moves with the times.’ Despite the Foreign Secretary’s misgivings about whether destiny could ‘flow’ like a river, the Queen rather thought it could: ‘Much of the destiny of Europe has flowed through London and Paris like the Seine and the Thames . . .’

Once again, the French media commended the Queen’s sense of style – particularly her turquoise beret – and were equally impressed by her choice of guests for a small lunch party that followed at the British Embassy. Rather than inviting the usual civic worthies, the Queen had replicated the ‘informal’ luncheons that she and the Duke of Edinburgh had already introduced at Buckingham Palace. At home, every few months, a dozen eminent people at the top of their trades – a theatre director, perhaps, plus a bishop, a chief constable, a professor, and so on – would receive a call from the Deputy Master of the Royal Household asking if they might like to have lunch with the Queen. After the initial guffaws and replies of ‘pull the other one’, they would be invited to ring the Palace switchboard, ask for the Deputy Master and establish that the invitation was, indeed, genuine. Few have ever declined. The Queen decided to do exactly the same in Paris, mixing together a leading physician, a television executive, the novelist Jean d’Ormesson, and the couturier Pierre Balmain.

For the embassy kitchens, this was just the first challenge of the day. That evening, it was the Queen’s turn to host the President to dinner. The Ambassador was in his element – food was always a central plank of British diplomacy during the Soames years. ‘The first thing Soames did each day was have a meeting with the cooks to decide what was going to be eaten,’ says Sir Roger du Boulay, who served as his Head of Chancery and well remembers his boss’s attention to detail. ‘He would say: “We haven’t thought about the colour. We need some colour – tomatoes or carrots!” And even his house wine would be a fine claret.’

Ahead of the visit, the Ambassador and his chef had carefully plotted how the Queen’s return banquet might outdo anything the French could produce. Consommé Madrilène was followed by poached salmon with mousseline sauce, fillet of beef with ‘pearls of Périgord’ and Sherbet Pauline Borghese. Even

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