Let them eat cake.

 With 25 chefs, a kitchen recently renovated for €15 million and a wine cellar containing 14,000 bottles, the French presidency should be able to organise a decent dinner party.

At a Hong Kong Dinner Party
David Alan Redpath Michie (1928-2015)
Photo Credit: Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture [CC BY-NC-ND]

Yet when the King paid a state visit to France last year, President Macron decided that the Elysee was not good enough and instead held the reception in the Palace of Versailles. The cost of the evening came to €474,851, according to a report published this week by the Court of Accounts, which  oversees French state spending...

The disclosure is damaging for Macron at a time when France is under pressure to adopt austerity measures to reduce a national debt of more than €3 trillion...

When the visit finally went ahead in September more than 150 guests were invited to Versailles ... They were served drinks including a 2004 Chateau Mouton Rothschild and a 2013 Pol Roger "Winston Churchill" champagne, which had a total value of €42,515, the report says.

The wine came from the Elysee cellar, whose bottles are worth €500,000, the court said...

The food cost €166,193. A total of €100,428 was spent on waiters, €42,720 on decorating the banquet hall, €90,387 on hiring tables, chairs and other furniture and €14,806 on the tablecloths and flowers...

When Macron paid a state visit to China in April 2023, he took two presidential Airbus planes, costing €23,251 an hour. Once in China  his delegation rented 50 cars...

A total of 817 people work at the Elysee and it possesses 64 flats for personnel as well as 159 vehicles, including a €330,000 bulletproof car for Macron. It owns 77,000 artworks, most of which are held by French museums. However, the report reveals that officials are unsure where some of these works are located and are facing 40 lawsuits from public bodies over their failure to find them.

(Adam Sage, The Times, 2024)

Mr President, in future, fly your guests to Hong Kong for the evening and save the country a few euros. Though I don't think blue lobster or Bresse French poultry with mushroom gratin or a pink macaroon and lychee sorbet will be on the menu.