French President Emmanuel Macron hosted President Biden on Saturday night under the crystal chandelier of the Elysée Palace’s gilded reception hall, which opened in 1889 and hosted a banquet for 8,000 people to celebrate that history. long-standing alliance and an indication of France’s ties with U.S. President Joe Biden.
Biden, who called the French leader “Emmanuel,” stood from a long table decorated with pink peonies and bouquets of roses and said, “It’s not irrelevant that France is our first ally.” He cited a book called “The Pocket Guide to France,” which he said was distributed to U.S. troops who, eighty years ago, fought their way up the cliffs of Normandy in a hail of Nazi bullets to wrest Europe from tyranny.
“Don’t brag,” Biden quotes the tour guide as saying, “the French don’t like that!” The book urges U.S. soldiers to be generous — “it won’t hurt you” — and says the French “happen to speak a different language. Democracy, but we are all in the same boat.”
During Biden’s five-day visit to France, the “same boat” from 1944 was repeatedly mentioned and still exists today, namely France and the United States’ joint support for Ukraine against Russia, which is crucial to the defense of European freedoms. “When the going gets tough, we’ll stand together,” Mr. Biden said.
This sumptuous supper is almost unlike the sumptuous dinner served on the tables between the fluted columns of the room designed a century later after the French Revolution to honor the glory of the Republic.
Under the golden caryatids and the painted ceiling medal that read “The Republic Defends the Peace”, a team of waiters in uniforms and white bow ties, carrying silver trays, served four dishes with impeccable precision. A feast of dishes, paired with champagne and a glass of 2006 Chateau Margaux that was finished 18 hours later.
There was a light salad that turned the plate into a little work of art, garnished with fennel, green beans, other greens and various flower petals gathered around a puddle of vinaigrette. Next came a plate of chicken, rice, artichokes and carrots – which sounds simple, except that on top of artichoke hearts, carrot sticks of various colors were curled into the shape of a rose. The final cheese course ended with chocolate, strawberries and raspberries, again shaped like roses and enlivened by the “thorn of the flesh” jam (whatever that is). Regardless, it’s very good.
President Macron sleeps little and enjoys fine dining and wine tastings from France’s great chateaus. In this, he differed from his predecessors, who had less time for culinary diplomacy, a French tradition that lasted through monarchy, empire and five republics.
“We have institutionalized diplomatic dinners, especially since Napoleon,” said Marion Tayart de Borms, a historian of French culinary arts. “That’s why a new president always salutes his chef as his first gesture. Everything at a state dinner has political and cultural significance that must be balanced. There’s more at stake than just the plate.
The balance of the dinner was fine-tuned. Names on the table include the Great Smoky Mountains, the Cevennes, the Everglades, the Redwoods and Reunion (an island in the Indian Ocean and an overseas department of France). Gabriel Attal, Prime Minister of France; film director Claude Rousseau (Mr. Biden’s favorite film, “Men and Women”); many French senators and artists with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and tennis star-turned-commentator John McEnroe, among others, mingled.
During the main course, a military band played “Amazing Grace,” followed immediately by “New York, New York,” and “My Way,” served with oozing Bria-Savarin cheese. French contributions to musical compositions include Charles Trenet’s “Ocean” and Handel’s sonatas for cello and violin, with which brothers Gautier and Renault Capuçon serenaded Mr. Biden and the first lady, Won warm applause.
When Mr. Macron began the dinner, he assured guests that “it will be a toast, not a speech, and very brief.” Surprisingly, he largely kept his promise. In his address to “Dear Joe and Gill,” he spoke of the “spirit of 1776” that was always in the air when French and Americans gathered, alluding to France’s decisive support of the nascent United States during the Revolutionary War.
Macron said that on June 6, 1944, American soldiers who “gave their lives for a country they did not know” helped create “unbreakable bonds”. “We Americans and French have a common charm. We live the American dream. You live the French lifestyle. We have our own uniqueness and we are best friends.
Indeed, such friendships can sting, and Mr Macron, in good Gaullist tradition, is fond of saying that France “will never become a vassal of the United States”. The two countries’ policies toward Ukraine and Israel do not exactly coincide, but as the dinner showed, large reserves of goodwill tend to smooth over differences.
Biden’s timing is perfect because Macron’s predecessor was less inclined to culinary diplomacy. “We haven’t had a gourmet president for 15 years, with a deep understanding of gastronomy, the joy of gastronomy and its economic importance to France,” Tourism Minister Olivia Grégoire said in an interview said during the interview.
She described François Hollande, who was president from 2012 until Macron took office in 2017, as “loving good food but always watching his weight and not wanting to get fat, so he was very strict.”
As for Nicolas Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, “He never drank and had lunch and dinner very quickly.”
Éric Duquenne, chef at the Elysée Palace during Sarkozy’s presidency, said the state banquet prepared for the visiting head of state lasted a full 35 minutes. “This is the record,” he said. “Sarkozy thought the table was a waste of time. He only drank zero Coke or cranberry juice.
Duquesne recalled a state dinner for former Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi that featured lamb cooked for seven hours into confit. “It’s a perfect combination of our heritage and their heritage, which is exactly what you want because French hunters traditionally give the lamb to the bakers and put it in the bread oven for hours until it becomes greasy. soft.
But lately, even at the Elysée Palace, cooking has become bland, he said. He said the days of chunks of lamb, beef cheek and game at state banquets had been replaced by poultry and fish. “You no longer have to go to bed right after a meal.”
A rousing rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” sweeps away any possible drowsiness. This seemed to encapsulate the spirit of Paris Night, that the old alliances remain relevant and necessary for the survival of Ukrainian freedom.
