Dutch State Visit to France: March 10-11, 2016

[Duc_et_Pair]

It has been reported that the flowers which adorned the stairs of the Petit Palais in red-white-blue pots will be distributed to people in hospices all over Paris, to bring some fleur to their rooms.

What a nice thought!

 

[fandesacs2003]

Could someone post a video of King WA speaking in French ? I watched his mother, in a perfect French, like all the royals of this generation, but what about him?

 

[tommy100]

I think the difference is in the picture with the Chinese premier the Queen was hosting him, therefore he should have complied with her dress code.

I think you should always respect the dress code of the host even if its not what you would choose, therefore IMO the President should have gone for black tie for the return event if thats what the King & Queen asked for. And of course he shouldn't have left after the first ten minutes, that's just plain rudeness.

I think its sad the French President can't put on a tux, he hosts visiting heads of state in one of the most chic cities in the world but looks like he's just come straight from another meeting. That must be the look he wants to project, always working. Must to me its quite sad especially when surrounded with the pomp and beauty of the Elysee Palace and Paris.

 

[wartenberg7]

Then the dresscode. Tastes differ. When ladies are not even in long dress and gentlemen are wearing suit, then Queen Elizabeth stepping out of the car with her white granny hairdo adorned with a diadem, a big sash over her dress and her husband bowing down under the weight of medals, it becomes a walking anachronism. The dresscode should fit with the colour locale otherwise people are making a fool of themselves.

Queen Máxima wore a white dress with sparkling gold sequins and her set of Borneo diamonds, which belong to her best diamonds. She did her best. When she would have stepped out of that car in a long robe with a sparkling diadem on her head while tout Paris was just in sweaty polyester suits, she was making a fool of herself.

Here an example of a total mismatch

Here another example of totally derailing dresscodes

Almost every lady, including Merkel, DID wear long dresses for the state banquet in Berlin last june!

I didn´t say Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands did any wrong - the french side is the only one to blame!
Do you really think these underdressed people should set the style or those who know what a STATE BANQUET requires?!
This is not a private dinner with friends where everyone may dress what he/ she likes; dressing the correct way is part of these people´s job!

When we come to your photo examples - this one´s at Buck. Palace. Is the Queen in her own house to blame for the bad taste and unconsciousness of these high "representatives" of their country?
Here an example of a total mismatch

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

I think the difference is in the picture with the Chinese premier the Queen was hosting him, therefore he should have complied with her dress code.

I think you should always respect the dress code of the host even if its not what you would choose, therefore IMO the President should have gone for black tie for the return event if thats what the King & Queen asked for. And of course he shouldn't have left after the first ten minutes, that's just plain rudeness.

I think its sad the French President can't put on a tux, he hosts visiting heads of state in one of the most chic cities in the world but looks like he's just come straight from another meeting. That must be the look he wants to project, always working. Must to me its quite sad especially when surrounded with the pomp and beauty of the Elysee Palace and Paris.

I have the idea that Jacques Chirac and François Mitterrand were more classic presidents, meaning: let their Premier Ministres doing the daily politics. They focussed on presidential terrains as Foreign Affairs, Defense and the representation of La France in the world. Back then premiers as Pierre Mauroy, Édouard Balladur, Dominique de Villepin, Lionel Jospin were so much more political leaders of the Government.

Under Sarkozy and Hollande it has become like the President is also Premier-Ministre as well and profiling more with daily politics while Chirac and Mitterrand delegated this to their Premiers and kept more distance between Élysée (President) and Matignon (Premier).

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

Almost every lady, including Merkel, DID wear long dresses for the state banquet in Berlin last june!

I didn´t say Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands did any wrong - the french side is the only one to blame!
Do you really think these underdressed people should set the style or those who know what a STATE BANQUET requires?!
This is not a private dinner with friends where everyone may dress what he/ she likes; dressing the correct way is part of these people´s job!

When we come to your photo examples - this one´s at Buck. Palace. Is the Queen in her own house to blame for the bad taste and unconsciousness of these high "representatives" of their country?
Here an example of a total mismatch

The King and Queen of Spain, the King and Queen of the Belgians, the King and Queen of Sweden, the King and Queen of Jordan and now the King and Queen of the Netherlands, they have all observed day suit and normal dress for the "state banquet" at the Palais de l'Élysée. They all decided not to go against the dresscode wished by the host.

It is true that in the Chinese example the President of China and his delegations did not follow the British dresscode. Then there is a situation with one half of the banqueting hall in grand gala, white tie and glittering diadems. The other half of the banqueting hall in daily suit and normal dress. Queen Elizabeth II sticks to that.

Other Courts probably see this "an undesirable situation" as they want the state banquet to be an event where all guests feel comfortable. When President Chirac came to the Netherlands, he requested cravate-noire, to the amazement of the Dutch hosts. His Court also refused to let the President and Mme Chirac sleep in the "too Spartan" appartments of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. (This was before the recent modernization and renovation). The Court decided "in good agreement" to set the dresscode to cravate noire indeed. Apparently Queen Beatrix felt nothing for "British situations" with awkward pictures.

When Queen Beatrix visited Turkey, the dresscode was daily suit. But when President Gül came to the Netherlands, the dresscode was cravate blanche: picture So it is giving and taking. I am sure that -if you asked Máxima- she would have loved it to wear the Empire Laurel Wreath Diadem or another fitting sparkler in Paris...

 

[assia]

How do we know that Francois Hollande left the réception only after 15 minutes?


Envoyé de mon iPad à l'aide de The Royals Community

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

How do we know that Francois Hollande left the réception only after 15 minutes?


Envoyé de mon iPad à l'aide de The Royals Community

There were LOTS of media, cameras and journalists outside....

Paris Match:

"Il est un peu plus de 20h30 quand la reine Maxima, audacieuse dans une robe Tom Ford aux motifs psychés, a remonté le tapis rouge en compagnie de son époux le roi Willem-Alexander et du président de la République, François Hollande. Les invités, réunis dans une aile du Petit Palais, ont vu arriver leurs majestés un quart d’heure plus tard, en compagnie de la maire de Paris Anne Hidalgo et du chef de la diplomatie Jean-Marc Ayrault… mais sans François Hollande. Le président de la République, après un dernier toast au champagne en l’honneur de ses invités, s'en est retourné à l’Élysée."

[...]

"Au terme de cette heure de concert, donnée dans le cadre magnifique du Petit Palais, de ses peintures du XXe siècle et de son acoustique particulière, les invités étaient conviés dans la galerie sud. Leurs Majestés le roi Willem-Alexander des Pays-Bas et son épouse la reine Maxima avaient fait organiser une grande réception pour clôturer, avec quelques douceurs, cette visite d'Etat."

 

[carlota]

again, i am delighted they chose the petit palais. what a fab place to end a state visit! i can't reiterate enough how much i love this palace.

i give hollande a bit of slack. he is a head of state, he has many things on his plate, including dealing with a tense socio-political situation and the fact that the country was in a state of emergency only some months ago with a huge terrorist attack... to me, what he wears is irrelevant, as long as he deals correctly with such a sensitive situation.

 

[Al_bina]

... [snipped]
These to the Sultan of Brunei

The gentleman on the photo is not Sultan of Brunei. If memory serves me right, this is Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

Norway did suffer terrorist attacks too. Spain idem. This did not lead to a change in dresscodes or heads-of-state rushing for 10 minutes while the Dutch host did all efforts to dress up an event, worthy of France and it's capital. When a movie première, or a corporate gala, or the Césars have a stricter dresscode than a Dîner de l'État at the Palais de l'Élysée for a country which is the third/fourth largest foreign investor in France, then someone has missed the plot here...

The gentleman on the photo is not Sultan of Brunei. This is Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

You are right. The Sultan got the same vases, I added a wrong link.

Just saw Blauw Bloed, the weekly program on royalty and nobility: both King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima interacted fluently with French locals. It was rare to hear Máxima in French too.

 

[carlota]

Just saw Blauw Bloed, the weekly program on royalty and nobility: both King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima interacted fluently with French locals. It was rare to hear Máxima in French too.

oh i'd love to see those clips Duc_et_Pair! do you know where we may find them? what was maxima's french like? i remember a video of her speaking it a bit some time ago on one of her official trips to an ex french colony...

EDIT: I found the video! towards the end you can hear maxima being interviewed in french, which she seems to speak really well
i wonder if she spoke it prior to her engagement (surely she had at least some prior knowledge given her background), or if she learnt it / had a tutor when she joined the RF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBESMKbt4V0

 

[wyevale]

Truly it grieves me to see the extent to which the [once] legendary French éclat has faded under this President [and less so, under the last one] ! Paris, and the French nation can only be demeaned and devalued by this absurd dumbing down of its famed standards of style and hospitality.
Not only that, but the sheer rudeness and disrespect shown by leaving the 'return' party so hastily simply beggars belief. Did M Hollande have to rush off to deal with a terrorist incident or ACTUAL crisis that demanded his IMMEDIATE attention ? NO, he did not..

In short it was just INSULTING !

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

The French probably see it differently: the President is só busy, but at least he found some time to say hello...

What was strange too was that the Lady Mayor of Paris, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and others did attend but wore no long either. Most guests in the Petit Palais in long robes and cravate-noire were non-governmentals.

The King stayed in the sumptuous residence of his Ambassador in Paris. Wellknown as the decor for the famous movie Intouchables. The house of the rich disabled wheelchaired aristocrat in the movie was in reality the grand maison of the Dutch Ambassador, one of the finest interiors in the whole capital. We can not blame the Dutchies. In the evaluation of the visit the royal couple will undoubtedly discuss the events in Paris...

Queen Máxima did attend a British college in Buenos Aires. French language was most likely on her curriculum. When she became more serious with the Prince of Orange, she moved from New York to the Brussels office of Deutsche Bank. Brussels, once a full Dutchspeaking city, is now predominantly Frenchspeaking. Probably Máxima exercized her French in Brussels. Her later sister in law, Princess Laurentien, is fluent in French as she did the Lycée Francais in Tokyo, Japan. Maybe the two communicated in French, in Brussels.

 

[wyevale]

If your President is REALLY so busy, why not just explain the fact [beforehand] to the guests, so they can avoid the bother and expense of throwing YOU a party. Actually why interrupt your busy life to invite them at all !?

 

[Countessmeout]

Attending these events is part of the president's job. Unless an emergency came up, it screams rude to show up late and for 10 minutes. This state visit would have been on his calendar for months. Its not like the dutch showed up unexpected and said 'hey want to come for dinner.'

Can you imagine Obama pulling this when Trudeau and his family were just in DC?

 

[COUNTESS]

If you invite someone, you stay and entertain them, unless a major, MAJOR crisis appears.

 

[Al_bina]

According to Ponte de Vue, France forgot how to receive guests.

Edito: quand la France ne sait plus recevoir... - L'Express Styles

 

[Nico]

According to Ponte de Vue, France forgot how to receive guests.

Edito: quand la France ne sait plus recevoir... - L'Express Styles

Can't agree more, i'm afraid ...