VIDEO: Watch Queen Elizabeth II speaking French on her visits to Paris

As well as her many other talents, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, who has died at the age of 96, was a fluent French speaker who often exercised her talent during visits to France.

Published: 8 September 2022 20:23 CEST
Updated: 10 September 2022 07:43 CEST

VIDEO: Watch Queen Elizabeth II speaking French on her visits to Paris

Princess Elizabeth of England - before her ascension to the throne - delivers a speech in French during a visit to Paris in 1948. Photo by AFP

In the course of her long reign, the British queen met nine French presidents and paid many state visits to France, where she was a very popular figure.

Part of her appeal was undoubtedly her fluent – if quite heavily accented – French, which she was happy to use during visits.

During her Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022, French TV channel France Info put together this video package of her visits, and her French speeches.

Her husband Prince Philip, who died in 2021, was also a fluent French speaker and in fact spent part of his childhood in France.

VIDEO: Watch Prince Philip making a speech in French (with a ‘frog’ joke)

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

“I don’t believe in the model… which would involve finding third countries on the African continent or elsewhere where we’d send people who arrive on our soil illegally, who don’t come from these countries,” Macron said.

“We’re creating a geopolitics of cynicism which betrays our values and will build new dependencies, and which will prove completely ineffective,” he added in a wide-ranging speech on the future of the European Union at Paris’ Sorbonne University.

British MPs on Tuesday passed a law providing for undocumented asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed and where they would stay if the claims succeed.

The law is a flagship policy for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, which badly lags the opposition Labour party in the polls with an election expected within months.

Britain pays Paris to support policing of France’s northern coast, aimed at preventing migrants from setting off for perilous crossings in small boats.

Five people, including one child, were killed in an attempted crossing Tuesday, bringing the toll on the route so far this year to 15 – already higher than the 12 deaths in 2023.

But Macron had warm words for London when he praised the two NATO allies’ bilateral military cooperation, which endured through the contentious years of Britain’s departure from the EU.

“The British are deep natural allies (for France) and the treaties that bind us together… lay a solid foundation,” he said.

“We have to follow them up and strengthen them, because Brexit has not affected this relationship,” Macron added.

The president also said France should seek similar “partnerships” with fellow EU members.