Beneath the crystal chandeliers of the Élysée Palace’s gilded reception room, which opened with a party for 8,000 in 1889, French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Biden for a state dinner on Saturday night that was meant to celebrate a very old alliance and show that its ties are stronger than intermittent friction.
Biden, calling the French president “Emmanuel,” rose from a long table decorated with bouquets of pink peonies and roses and said, “France was our first ally, and that’s no small thing.” He cited a book called “Pocket Guide to France,” which he said was issued to American troops 80 years ago who scaled the cliffs of Normandy under Nazi gunfire to liberate Europe from oppression.
Biden quoted the guidebook as saying, “Don’t brag, the French hate that!” The book urges U.S. soldiers to be generous, saying “it won’t hurt you” and that the French “just happen to speak democracy in a different language, but we’re all in the same boat.”
The “same boat” of 1944 remains present today in the form of joint French and U.S. support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, a point Biden made repeatedly during his five-day visit to France and described as crucial to protecting freedoms in Europe. “When times get tough, we stick together,” Biden said.
Very little happened at the lavish dinner, served at a table set among fluted columns in a room designed to reflect the glories of the Republic a century after the French Revolution.
Under the Golden Caryatid A medallion was painted on the ceiling reading “A Republic in Peace,” and an army of uniformed waiters with white bow ties carried silver trays and served, with perfect precision, champagne and a four-course meal accompanied by a bottle of 2006 Chateau Margaux, a wine that took 18 years to perfect.
A light salad transformed the plate into a little work of art, adorned with fennel, green peas and other vegetables, as well as various flower petals gathered around a vinaigrette. It was followed by a dish of chicken, rice, artichokes and carrots. It sounds simple, except that it was a base of artichoke hearts, with thin slices of carrot of various colours rolled into the shape of a rose. After the cheese course, we ended with a chocolate, strawberry and raspberry finale, also in the shape of a rose, enlivened by a coulis of “thorns of carnality”. Whatever it was. Either way, it was delicious.
Macron’s lack of sleep, enjoyment of fine cuisine and a penchant for wines from France’s finest chateaux distinguish him from his predecessors, who had little time for culinary diplomacy, a French tradition that has endured through monarchies, empires and five republics.
“Diplomatic dinners have become an institution, especially since Napoleon,” says French culinary historian Marion Tayard de Bormes, “which is why the new president always salutes the chef as his opening remark. Everything at a dinner has political and cultural meaning, and there has to be a balance. It’s not just the plate that counts.”
The dinner was perfectly balanced. The table was decorated with the Great Smoky Mountains, Cevennesthe Everglades, the redwoods and Reunion, an Indian Ocean island that is a French overseas department. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, film director Claude Lelouch (a Biden favorite for his film “A Man and a Woman”) and French senators and artists mingled with people such as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and tennis player-turned-commentator John McEnroe.
The military band played “Amazing Grace” during the main course, “New York, New York” immediately afterwards, and “My Way” accompanied by melting Brillat-Savarin cheese. France played Charles Trenet’s “La Mer” and Handel’s Cello and Violin Sonata, and brothers Gautier and Renaud Capuçon serenaded Biden and the first lady to thunderous applause.
Macron began the dinner by promising guests, “This is not a speech, it’s a toast, and it will be very short.” The president largely, and somewhat surprisingly, kept his promise. Addressing “dear Joe and dear Gilles,” he spoke of the “spirit of 1776” that permeates the air whenever French and Americans get together, an allusion to France’s staunch support for the new America during the War of Independence.
Macron said U.S. soldiers who “gave their lives to a country they didn’t know” on June 6, 1944 helped forge “unbreakable bonds.” “We Americans and the French are attracted to each other. We live the American dream. You live the French way. We cherish what distinguishes us, and we are the best of friends.”
Indeed, the friendship between the two countries can be prickly: Mr. Macron, in the Gaullist tradition, likes to say that France will “never be a vassal of the United States.” Their policies toward Ukraine and Israel don’t exactly line up, but as the dinner showed, goodwill tends to smooth over differences.
Biden’s inauguration comes at a good time, as Macron’s predecessors had little interest in culinary diplomacy: “We’ve had a president in 15 years who is a foodie and has a deep understanding not only of the pleasures of gastronomy but also of its economic importance to France,” Tourism Minister Olivia Gregoire said in an interview.
She described François Hollande, who served as president from 2012 until Macron took office in 2017, as “a man who liked good food but was very strict because he was always concerned about his weight and didn’t want to get fat.”
Nicolas Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, “never drank wine and finished his lunches and dinners very quickly.”
Eric Duquesne, chef at the Elysée Palace under President Sarkozy, said a state dinner for a visiting head of state lasted just 35 minutes. “That was a record,” he said. “Sarkozy considered it a waste of time. All he drank was Coke Zero or cranberry juice.”
Duquesne recalled that at an official dinner given for former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, lamb was served confited for seven hours: “It was the perfect blend of our traditions and theirs. It’s exactly what you want, because French hunters traditionally give their lamb to a baker to bake in the oven for hours until the lamb is fatty and tender.”
But nowadays, he says, the food at the Elysée is becoming lighter in flavor, with state dinners featuring lamb, beef cheeks and game being replaced by chicken and fish, he says. “You don’t have to go to bed straight afterwards anymore.”
A powerful rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” drove away the drowsiness and seemed to encapsulate the spirit of a Parisian night dedicated to the idea that old alliances still matter, and are essential to the survival of Ukrainian freedom.
