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First pleasant duty of Their Majesties was to drive over and call at the Elysée Palace of President Lebrun, who conferred on Queen Elizabeth the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honor, already possessed by King George. His Majesty then invested the President with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Bath. Under French law the wife of the President has no official status, and thus motherly Mme Lebrun was not in on the exchange of decorations, behaved as a simple French citizeness in dropping a curtsy to the Queen, although Citizeness Lebrun was squired everywhere last week on the arm of the King.
At the State dinner in the Elysée. King George and President Lebrun, while each spared Adolf Hitler's feelings by remarking that the Anglo-French friendship is directed against no other power, affirmed in champagne toasts the strength of what His Majesty called the "bonds" uniting Britain and France. After dinner came a super-select reception for 1,000 influential French, followed by a playlet in which Sacha Guitry acted Louis XIV, "Le Grand Monarque," and outside the Paris crowd kept up insistent shouts of "Vive le Roi!"
Monster & Gifts, Next morning the King, uniformed as a field marshal, wreathed the tomb of the Unknown Soldier with red poppies. Few minutes later, in the blue of Admiral of the Fleet, His Majesty went up the Seine on a royal barge with Her Majesty and the Lebruns to the Paris City Hall, passing en route a huge, festive Loch Ness Monster in papier mache more than a city block long. Gifts presented by the City of Paris were a set of Lalique table glass for the Queen, a solid gold cigaret case for the King. That afternoon at a garden party in the Rose Garden of the Bagatelle Chateau, the top-hatted King-Emperor responded by writing his personal check for 100,000 francs ($2,760)—a gift to the Paris poor. The widow of Marshal Joffre and the widow of Marshal Foch were received for a quiet chat by Their Majesties. They dined at the British Embassy—with swank Sir Eric Phipps, the Ambassador, "at the foot of the table" since the King, in a white tie, was at the head.
Afterward came the Grand Gala at the Paris Opera. The elite of France, struggling to worm their way through the jam-packed streets, were jostled, joshed and even hissed by people not important enough to rate tickets. Up the vast white marble stair, lined on each side by officers of the Garde Republicaine with gleaming swords and helmets, the King and Queen entered, preceded by two footmen carrying lighted candles in silver sticks. They were greeted by the President and Mme Lebrun, cheered by the whole audience as they took seats in the Presidential box to hear Salammbô, the opera based on Flaubert's novel about Carthage. U. S. Ambassador William C. Bullitt was in the adjoining box. Most women in the audience wore white, knowing the Queen would be in what they considered "white mourning" for her mother, although white is her favorite color. Her Majesty's satin gown by Norman Hartnell (who went from London to Paris to hover near his best customer) was set off by the dazzling white fire of the Koh-i-Nur.