The King and Queen travel on a state visit to France in March 2025 to strengthen the close historical and bilateral relations between the two countries. Denmark and France have long been allies, and The Royal Family has a special familial bond to France.

The King and Queen will be accompanied by a large Danish business delegation with a focus on European resilience in the fields of defence, energy and health. The delegation consists of 55 Danish companies and begins the visit with an economic forum, sector-specific visits and partnership arrangements with French players.

The state visit also emphasises the cultural ties between the countries. The King and Queen will visit the weaving mills at La Manufacture des Gobelins, where the gobelin tapestries for Koldingshus are made, as well as the reopened Notre Dame Cathedral. The Queen will also visit a school where The Mary Foundation’s anti-bullying programme is implemented.

The King and Queen will be accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen, Minister for Foreign Affairs Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Minister for the Interior and Health of Denmark Sophie Løhde, and Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard, all of whom will take part in various activities during the state visit.

 

PROGRAMME

The programme may be subject to changes.

Monday, 31 March

Arrival at Paris Orly Airport
14.30
The King and The Queen arrive at Paris Orly Airport.

Official reception and welcoming ceremony at Les Invalides
16.00
The official welcoming ceremony takes place at Court d’Honneur at Hôtel National des Invalides – also called Les Invalides. The King and Queen will be received by President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron at a military ceremony marking the official start of the state visit. Upon the arrival, the Danish and French national anthems will be played, after which The King and The President will inspect the guard of honour. Thereafter, the French President and First Lady will be introduced to the Danish delegation, and The King and Queen will greet the French delegation.

Hôtel des Invalides houses museums and monuments, all of which are all related to France’s military history.

Transport to the Élysée Palace
16.35
The King and Queen are escorted by La Garde Républicaine to the official residence of France’s president, the Élysée Palace. La Garde Républicaine is a unit under the French Gendarmerie, which is especially known for its cavalry corps.

Arrival and official welcome at the Élysée Palace
16.45
The King and Queen arrive at the Élysée Palace, escorted by La Garde Républicaine. Upon arrival, The King and Queen and the Danish delegation are received by The President and First Lady on the Palace’s steps.

In Salon des Portraits, gift and orders are exchanged, after which a courtesy audience is held in Salon Pompadour with The President and The First Lady. Minister for Foreign Affairs Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen and Denmark’s ambassador to France and Monaco, Hanne Fugl Eskjær, also participate in the meeting, in which bilateral relations and cooperation will be discussed.

State dinner at the Élysée Palace
20.00
The French President and First Lady host a state dinner in honour of The King and The Queen. During the dinner, The President will extend a welcome to the guests, and then The King will deliver a speech. The musical entertainment will be provided by the French National Guard.

Tuesday, 1 April

Visit at Manufacture des Gobelins
09.35
Together with First Lady Brigitte Macron, The King and Queen visit the historic tapestry weaving factory Manufacture des Gobelins. The workshop was founded in 1601 and is known for turning out some of the world’s most famous gobelin tapestries and textiles.

The focal point of the visit is the 16 gobelin tapestries that were commissioned for Koldinghus in 2018 and that will be cut down from the weaving looms in the presence of The King and Queen and thus can be seen in their full scale for the first time.

Later in the year, the gobelins will be exhibited in the Grand Palais in Paris before they become part of the permanent exhibition at Koldinghus.

Official opening of Economic Forum
11.00
The economic forum France-Denmark: A European Partnership for a Resilient Future is held at Palais Brongniart. The King and Queen and The President and First Lady participate in the official opening, at which both The King and The President will give speeches.

The conference is aimed at creating the best possible platform for networking between the Danish business delegation members and their commercial and political partners in France under the common theme of economic resilience.

Meeting with France’s prime minister, François Bayrou
12.00
The King arrives at Hôtel de Matignon via the palace’s garden, Jardin de Matignon, which is known for its elegant French landscape gardening. Prime Minister François Bayrou receives The King on the palace steps, after which a short meeting will be held. Hôtel de Matignon is the official residence and workplace for France’s prime minister.

Visit at Ecole Maternelle Dussoubs
12.00
Together with First Lady Brigitte Macron, The Queen and The Mary Foundation visit the school Ecole Maternelle Dussoubs. Students and teachers at the school have recently become part of The Mary Foundation’s Free of Bullying programme, and, during the visit, The Queen and The First Lady will gain insight into the French experience with working with the programme.

Ecole Maternelle Dussoubs is a public school for children between the ages of three and six.

Luncheon with the Speaker of the Senate
13.00
The King is received in the Senate by the Speaker of the Senate, Gérard Larcher. The Senate is one of the two chambers in France’s Parliament, the other being the National Assembly. The Senate is housed in the historic Palais du Luxembourg in Paris, which serves both as the Senate’s meeting place and as an important symbol of the French parliamentary system of government.

At a joint luncheon, Denmark’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen will also participate.

Partnership Event at Palais Brongniart
14.20
At Palais Brongniart, where The King and The Queen and The President and First Lady officially opened the conference Economic Forum earlier in the day, Danish and French companies present their work for The King and The Queen. The short meetings with the companies take place in three tracks:

The King meets 16 companies with a focus on defence.
The Queen meets 16 companies with a focus on health.
The King and The Queen individually meet 11 companies with a focus on green energy.

Visit at Grand Palais
16.00
The Queen visits one of the most iconic cultural institutions in Paris, Grand Palais, which has recently undergone a renovation. 

This summer, Grand Palais will house the exhibition ‘Tapisseries Royales’ presenting modern Danish contributions to the art of tapestry before they become part of the permanent exhibition at Koldinghus.

Grand Palais was built for the World Expo in 1900 and is known for its beautiful combination of classic and modern architecture with a grand glass and steel structure.

Reciprocal dinner at Le Grand Hôtel
19.00
The King and Queen extend an invitation to a reciprocal dinner at Le Grand Hôtel with the participation of the delegation’s members and selected French and Danish guests. The reciprocal dinner celebrates French-Danish relations in the fields of diplomacy, culture, politics and business.

Wednesday, 2 April

Receiving by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo
09.15
In the garden in front of the Paris city hall (Hôtel de Ville), The King and Queen are received by Mayor Anne Hidalgo. Flanked by La Garde Républicaine, The King and Queen and the mayor then stroll down to the Seine, where the delegation steps aboard the electric-powered boat The Mistinguett.

During the sailing tour on the Seine, there will be an energy conference in which The King and Queen will be introduced to Paris’s green transition in transportation, heating, cooling and electricity. Mayor Anne Hidalgo will also present the city’s initiatives for handling climate challenges during the boat tour.

Visit at the defence company KNDS
10.45
The King visits KNDS France, which is among the largest defence companies in Europe. During the visit, The King will be introduced to advanced military solutions and concrete collaborations between Denmark and France in the defence industry.

Visit at Hôpital Foch
10.45
Together with The First Lady, The Queen visits Hôpital Foch, where there will be a tour and presentation of the hospital’s research and technological innovations in the health sector.

Visit at Assemblée Nationale
12.00
The King and Queen arrive at the French National Assembly and are received by the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet. After a short meeting and signing of the guest book, The King and Queen go on a tour of the National Assembly’s newly renovated library.

Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée Nationale was established in 1796 and contains one of France’s most important collections of legal, political and historical works.

Visit at Notre Dame de Paris
15.00
The King and Queen and The President and First Lady meet for a tour of the iconic cathedral Notre Dame, which has been a symbol of French culture and history since its construction in the 12th century.  During the visit, there will be a focus on the extensive restoration work the cathedral has undergone since the destructive fire in 2019.

The restoration of Notre Dame is a global collaboration, in which architects, engineers and craftsmen have restored the cathedral with traditional methods and materials to preserve the building’s authenticity. The cathedral reopened in December 2024.

At the same time, the visit at Notre Dame marks the conclusion of the state visit, and The King and Queen will bid farewell to The President and First Lady on the square in front of the cathedral.