Madame Sarkozy talks about the Queen
In the wake of her recent successful stay at Windsor Castle, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been talking about her impressions of the Queen and the British Monarchy.
“It was terribly scary but also an incredible adventure,” she said. “It was like arriving on another planet. Never in my life did I think I would meet the Queen of England.”
She told of her amazement that the Queen personally showed her to the apartment where she would be staying at Windsor Castle, and said, “Here’s your bathroom.”
The French First Lady admits she took a crash course in Royal protocol before the visit. “I asked for advice from the protocol section of the Elysee, but also from the British Ambassador’s wife. I tried to imagine how to do the curtsy.”
The Royals were “a real family,” she declared. “One really feels it when one is with them. And for me it was an absolute honour.”
Carla seems to have hit it off with the Duke of Edinburgh. He played the perfect host as the Queen and the President chatted in French.
“Prince Philip is a person with whom it seemed to me very easy to follow protocol.” He also had “impeccable French”. The Duke had explained “everything that was going on, what we saw, the right thing to do. … He’s a fantastic guide.”
The British public and press were very taken with her too.
I really never liked her, but then I also don’t dislike her. I guess the very quick time in meeting Sarkosky and marriage was just so fast that I don’t know if to believe in their true feelings for one another.
I’m glad the RF made them feel welcome during their state visit.
By Me on May 8th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Madame Sarkozys observations about her stay is really nothing new. It has always been said that during State visits HM and PP are the most gracious hosts and HM pays attention to everything. Possibly because they are newlyweds and Madame Sarkozy was understandably nervous HM totally went out of her way to put her at ease as did PP to make the visit the success it was.
By Trudie on May 11th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Of course we knew that Queen Elizabeth II is not only a gracious hostess but also speaks fluent French. It does not surprise me that Prince Philip also speaks fluent French because the members of the Battenberg family, of which Prince Philip is a part, had an amazing facility for languages. Prince Philip’s Mother, Princess Alice, was born deaf and by the time she was a teenager had learned to lipread in six different languages, one of which one was Russian! If my memory serves me, the others were French, English, German, Spanish and Italian. To this impressive collection, she evidently added Greek after she married Prince Andrew, the Danish Prince who became a Prince of Greece.
By Gigi on May 11th, 2008 at 6:00 pm