france’s ‘most British airport’ to be named after the Queen
Charles Bremner
, Paris
Thursday September 15 2022, 7.00pm BST, The Times
Global politics
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Le Touquet airport was built in the 1930s to serve British visitors
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The Channel resort of Le Touquet, the favourite French playground of British kings and upper crust celebrities in the early 20th century, is to name its historic airport after the Queen.
The local council has decided to honour what it called the “most British of French airports” in memory of the town’s deep connections with Britain and a visit by the young Princess Elizabeth to her uncle, the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, there in the 1930s.
“To pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and in memory of her visit to Le Touquet with her uncle Edward VIII, during which she practised both horse riding and sand yachting, the town of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage wishes to name its airport after her. For 70 years she served her country with commitment, respect and constancy at the same time as she was always attentive to good relations between our two nations, she who spoke French and appreciated our country,” the local authority said.
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The seaside airport, which was opened in the 1930s to accommodate the flow of British visitors, was for a time in the 1950s the third busiest in France after Paris and Nice.
Tens of thousands of Britons passed through it from 1956 to 1980, when it was the French air terminus of the Silver Arrow service that linked London and Paris by rail and air in four hours. Lydd and Manston, in Kent, and Gatwick were in turn the British landing fields where passengers would be brought by train from the capital.
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The “Touquet-Paris-Plage” airport no longer runs scheduled services but it remains the top continental destination for British private pilots, who flock across the Channel at weekends to lunch in the town that was developed by British entrepreneurs as a golfing, gambling and seaside resort in the Edwardian era.
In the late 19th century Edward VII was a regular at the baccarat table in the casino when he was Prince of Wales. In the 1920s Noël Coward and the “smart set” spent weekends there. PG Wodehouse lived there in the 1930s and Ian Fleming, another regular, later used the setting for some of James Bond’s exploits.
President Macron’s main holiday home is a house in Le Touquet owned by his wife, Brigitte. He has just cancelled meetings with other leaders at the UN in New York to attend
the Queen’s funeral after days of hesitation over which fixture should take priority.
After holding his first telephone conversation with
King Charles III last night, the French president tweeted today: “I will be in London to attend the funeral.”
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Macron had planned to fly to New York on Sunday to hold bilateral sessions with other leaders in Manhattan before giving a speech on Tuesday, the first day of the annual UN general assembly. He had planned to be back in Paris to chair a Wednesday morning cabinet meeting. As it became clear that
world leaders were heading for London, Macron appeared to have made up his mind.
The Élysée Palace did not confirm his new schedule but it is assumed that he will fly from London to New York after the funeral to deliver his speech.
Macron “offered his sincere condolences to the King and expressed his full support,” the palace said. He also “wished the King the greatest success, and expressed his full availability to continue the work they have carried out together in recent years in the face of common challenges, starting with the protection of the climate and the planet”, it added.
Macron is hoping for a fresh start with Britain after a period of
execrable relations with Boris Johnson. The president has sent conciliatory messages to Liz Truss and has paid glowing tributes to the Queen and to the British people since her death. In his tweet today, he said: “The bond between France and the United Kingdom is unbreakable. We will continue to build it, following the path traced by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”