The King has arrived in France for a three-day state visit during which he and President Emmanuel Macron will hope to build on symbolism and personal bonds to turn the page on years of rocky relations between the two nations.

The king and his wife, Queen Camilla, started their visit with a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, with the aerobatics display teams of both nations’ air forces conducting a flypast.

Highlights of the trip include a state dinner on Wednesday at the Palace of Versailles, where blue lobster and a selection of French and English cheeses were on the menu.

More than 150 guests are invited to the banquet including British actor Hugh Grant, rock star Mick Jagger, former Arsenal football coach Arsene Wenger, French soccer star Didier Drogba and French billionaire Bernard Arnault.

On Thursday, the royals, Macron and his wife Brigitte will visit the Notre-Dame Cathedral to view restoration work following a massive blaze in 2019 that destroyed its roof.

The King and Queen will then head to the south-western city of Bordeaux on Friday, where excursions will include a visit to an organic vineyard.

The King, a fluent French speaker like his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, is keen to walk in her footsteps and is likely to refer to her deep affection for France, officials said. The trip is also a chance to rebuild ties that have been frayed by Britain’s chaotic exit from the EU in 2020.

“He’s an authentic francophile,” Adelaide de Clermont-Tonnerre, editor-in-chief of French celebrity magazine Point de Vue told Reuters TV.

“His mother was an icon.

“She had become Europe’s grandmother.

“Charles had a more polarising life.”

The King had hoped for a state visit to France to have been his first as monarch, but a March trip was postponed due to tense protests in France over pension reforms, much to Macron’s embarrassment.

On their second attempt at meeting in France, the 74-year-old sovereign and the 45-year-old president will set out to build on a relationship already bolstered by their communications over Notre-Dame.

The King wrote to Macron when the cathedral burnt down, and the pair also share interests in climate and heritage, royal aides and royal watchers said.

“They’re both intellectuals, erudite men,” Clermont-Tonnerre said.

“They both had to impose an unconventional, much-decried love story.”

The Queen, 76, will launch a new book prize in Paris with the French president’s wife, Brigitte Macron.

The warm words, visits and symbolic gestures come after several tense years over the negotiation of Britain’s exit in 2020 from the European Union, and after that, rows over issues ranging from immigration to the sale of submarines.

Former British prime minister Liz Truss once said the jury was out on whether France was a friend or foe, before settling on calling it a friend last year.

Her successor, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, visited France in March to kick off what he called an “entente renewed”.

Still, Parisians remained sceptical about the visit.

“He’s just the son, they are old already, we don’t have a long history,” said 88-year old Mireille Mauve.

Fifteen-year-old Alexia Aubert said: “I think since Elizabeth died, the royal family isn’t as important as it was, King Charles isn’t as important and symbolic as Elizabeth, so it doesn’t really matter if he comes or not.”

-Reuters