50 years in the past, Queen Elizabeth II visited the lands of Camargue and Provence

In a lilac go well with trimmed with black and carrying a cloche hat, Her Majesty Elizabeth II seems on the tarmac at Garons airport. It is 11:15 a.m. sharp. The precise time supplied by the protocol. She is adopted by the Duke of Edinburgh, in a beige go well with of sober distinction. We’re on Could 15, 1972. The airport of Nîmes Garons doesn’t but welcome the comings and goings of low cost vacationer planes, however the Royal Caravelle.

On this spring day, Elizabeth II, not but fairly an icon – regardless of already 27 years of reign – set foot on Camargue soil for the primary time, to the sound of God save the queen. Midi Libre which recounts the occasion insists on “the intense solar” and “the summer season temperatures” of this morning as the guarantees of a profitable go to.

Whereas the primary cheers go up within the crowd, in an immutable gesture, Elizabeth II shakes with a gloved hand the very many elected officers who’ve come to welcome her, earlier than spinning in a big black convertible limo beneath the gaze of little schoolchildren from Garons who’re waving flags struck within the colours of the Union Jack. Path Arles.

To an Arlesian girl who wore a cicada on her scarf, the duke requested: “what is that this little animal?”

There all of Provence awaits him within the arenas: “gardians in black velvet jackets on their white horses, regional orchestras and ladies in conventional costumes”, can we learn within the native press. It’s the communist mayor who welcomes the royal procession. The Duke of Edinburgh lingers, shakes fingers and chats with Arles girls. He asks one in all them carrying a cicada on her scarf: “What is that this little animal?”

I actually favored the dances of Arles, they jogged my memory of Scottish dances

The queen attends on the bleachers of the traditional theater to a spectacle of dances to the sound of fifes and tambourines. Abruptly, she leans in the direction of one in all her hosts and asks him: “However how do these Arlésiennes handle to bounce with such lengthy attire?”.
Her keep continued in Avignon however with out her husband, who left by helicopter for a brief getaway to the center of the Camargue on the Cabanes de Romieu. Though a horse lover, the Duke of Edinburgh makes his go to on foot. The protocol having prohibited him from placing on stirrups.

Charles joins the Queen in an Aston Martin

In the meantime, 24-year-old Charles has joined his mom Elizabeth II in Avignon, driving an Aston Martin convertible. He comes from Toulon; he served on the time within the Mediterranean within the Royal Navy.

Each uncover the Palace of the Popes in 25 brief minutes. Exterior, a number of hundred folks cheer them. On leaving, the queen, with a royal smile, greets the gang and the younger Provençal girls in lace headscarves, who’ve come to type a guard of honor for her. She appears delighted and tells the members of her suite of her “enchantment” earlier than confiding to them: “I actually favored the dances of Arles, they jogged my memory of Scottish dances”.

On the way in which to Les Baux, the place the queen goes subsequent, it’s stated {that a} hose from the radiator of the Chambord during which the Queen had sat, had given manner. She would have seen the incident with all-British phlegm and waited for the restore to be made.

The queen sleeps within the room the place De Gaulle had stayed

His go to continues the next days within the coronary heart of Provence, in Les Baux. She stays and dines on the Oustau de Baumanières (learn beneath). It’s, in these years, a famend inn frequented by the best of this world. The queen additionally sleeps within the room the place De Gaulle had stayed.

On the final day, she visits Les Baux. The banners flap within the wind, the forces of order flip again the journalists and the curious and guardians, trident in hand await the queen.

The rave press

In half-hour, Elizabeth II, Philip and Charles go to the perched metropolis of the Alpilles. They’re then obtained by the mayor, Raymond Thuillier, who can also be the proprietor of the Oustau de Baumanières. After signing the city’s guestbook, the royal couple and the longer term Charles III set off for Marignane to go to the amenities of the nationwide aerospace industrial firm, then return to England.

The following day, all of the press pays a dithyrambic and really agreed tribute to “her gracious majesty”, “splendidly British”, makes the lengthy story of “her elegant outfits” and such delicate climate. The queen thus leaves Provence in a state of grace.