Tuesday, March 20, 2018

State Visit, Day 2 - Including a Surprise Appearance by Alexandra

Photo: Cour grand-ducale / Bertrand Rindoff / Getty Images
The agenda for the second day of Grand Duke Henri's and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa's state visit to France was jam-packed as always. First off in the morning, the couple met the President of the Senate of France Gérard Larcher at the Hôtel de Luxembourg. Next up there was a reception at the town hall of Paris hosted by the city's mayor Anne Hidalgo in the presence of the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, and the Deputy Mayor, who is responsible for international relations and the Francophonie, Patrick Klugman. The event at the town hall included a meet and greet with Luxembourgish community living in Paris - which included Princess Alexandra! 
Photo: Cour grand-ducale / Bertrand Rindoff / Getty Images
This was followed by an official lunceon hosted by the Prime Minister of France, Édouard Philippe, at the Hôtel de Matignon in honour of the high guests from Luxembourg. The Grand-Ducal Couple, accompanied by Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, was then invited by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, to the Académie française. The President delivered a speech on the occasion of the International Day of the Francophonie. 
Photo: SIP / Jean-Christophe Verhaegen
In addition, the delegation visited Station F, a start-up business incubator set up in a former railway building. The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess had the opportunity to talk with entrepreneurs of the ShareIT.io Acceleration Programme, whose goal is to help social and environmental entrepreneurs to develop technological projects to build solutions that meet the major social challenges. They also met with representatives of the NGO We are not Weapons of War, whose mission is to raise awareness about sexual violence and to have it recognised as a weapon of war through education and public information. In addition, they had discussions with Hackers Against Natural Disaster, a community of techies who develop, install and manage open source technologies to alert citizens and optimise the organisation of relief after natural disasters.

The day ended with a visit to the Rodin Museum was the exhibition "Steichen/Rodin: un dialogue" is currently being shown. Edward Steichen, of course, is a Luxembourgish artist whose name you may recognise from various other events. In the gardens of the museum, the second day of the state visit ended with a dinner hosted by the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess as a thank you for their French hosts, President Macron and his wife.

More pictures and videos at the cour, the government, Wort and RTL.

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