French presidency's statement on King Charles visit leaves royalty fans excited

Royal fans in France are excited after the French presidency made an important announcement regarding the upcoming visit of Britain's King Charles.

According to the presidency, royalty fans will get a glimpse of the King and Queen Camilla as they descend the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on Wednesday at the start of a state visit.

At around 3:00 pm (1300 GMT) on the opening day of the three-day trip, the royal couple, accompanied by President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, will attend a ceremony in memory of World War I and lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe landmark in the French capital.

Charles will then share a car, marked with the French Republic´s insignia, with Macron to travel down the Champs-Elysees, as will Camilla and the French first lady, but in a separate vehicle, Macron´s office said.

Charles and Macron will then meet for a one-to-one discussion at the Elysee palace. Topics are to include biodiversity, climate change and a November summit in Britain on artificial intelligence (AI), as well as the situation in the Sahel region of Africa and the war in Ukraine, the presidency said.

Both couples will get together in the evening for a state dinner at the Versailles Chateau on the outskirts of Paris.

The late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip had lunch at Versailles during their first state visit to France in 1957.

Charles is "appreciative of the idea to walk in his mother´s footsteps", the Elysee said.

The choice of Versailles, a royal residence built by French king Louis XIV now owned by the French republic, was also an opportunity "to make France shine" through one of the country´s most-visited monuments, the presidency said.

Up to 180 people will be invited to the dinner in the Hall of Mirrors -- 73 metres (240 feet) long and adorned with 357 mirrors -- that was built to illustrate Louis´s absolute power and dazzle visitors.

Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich will perform on the night.

On Thursday, Macron and Charles will pay a visit to the Notre-Dame cathedral, currently under restoration following a 2019 fire that destroyed its roof, and will also go to the Museum of Natural History to meet business leaders and talk about biodiversity.

Queen Camilla and Brigitte Macron meanwhile will present a new French-British literary prize to be awarded for the first time next year.

They will also travel to the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, home to a large ethnic minority population, and visit a centre for fashion crafts founded by celebrity house Chanel in the up-and-coming 19th district of the capital.

The royal couple then travels on to Bordeaux, southwest France.