King Charles to host Emmanuel Macron at Bayeux Tapestry viewing after helping to secure its loan

King Charles to host Emmanuel Macron at Bayeux Tapestry viewing after helping to secure its loan King Charles and Queen Camilla will walk the length of the 70-metre Bayeux Tapestry, which is on loan at the British Museum in London, along with French president Emmanuel Macron The King and Queen will host French president Emmanuel Macron for a special viewing of the Bayeux Tapestry after being credited with helping to secure its loan to the UK. In a public display of warm Anglo-French relations, the monarch, Camilla, Mr Macron and Prime Minister Andy Burnham will walk the length of the 70-metre masterpiece at the British Museum in London later, where it is being displayed. They will be joined by France’s first lady Brigitte Macron and Mr Burnham’s wife Marie-France van Heel. The Tapestry – the woven record of the Norman conquest – has returned to the UK for the first time in almost 1,000 years, on loan until September 2027 as part of a special trilateral agreement between the UK, France and the museum. Charles and Camilla’s state visit to France in 2023 and returning the favour to host French president Macron and his wife last year have been credited with helping securing the loan for the British Museum. Palace sources said while discussions have of course been going on for many years, the visits played a key part in building the 'bilateral bonhomie' that has made it possible. The party will stop at key moments along the 11th century artwork to hear from curators about historic events such as the coronation of Harold Godwinson and the much-disputed depiction of his death by an arrow to the eye at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The King and Mr Macron will deliver speeches in celebration of the loan at a reception in the museum’s Great Court for representatives from Britain and France involved in the process and schoolchildren from both countries. Among those greeting the royals and the Macrons will be the museum’s director Nicholas Cullinan and its chair, former chancellor George Osborne. The monarch and the president enjoy a friendly rapport, with the King hosting the Macrons for a state visit in July last year. Charles rebranded the famous entente cordiale between the two nations as the entente "amicale" in his banquet speech in Windsor Castle last July. Mr Macron is the first European leader to visit the UK since Mr Burnham took office. The visit is seen as another sign the former mayor of Greater Manchester looks set to continue his predecessor Keir Starmer ’s policy of a 'reset' of relations between the UK and the EU. Mr Burnham pledged to be 'bolder' in closer ties with the European Union during his recent visit to Kyiv, and argued "greater co-operation" was needed across all areas. The tapestry has been on display at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Bayeux in Normandy since 1983 and will return there when the museum reopens after a two-year renovation project. Before that, it was displayed in various venues in France. It is being displayed at the British Museum in Room 30, the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery, marking its return to the UK for the first time in almost a millennium. When general admission tickets went on sale last month, the museum recorded the single biggest day of ticket sales in its history, generating more than £2.4million in sales in the first 24 hours. The next wave of public tickets for The Bayeux Tapestry will go on sale on October 21 at 10am, and further tickets covering the final months of the exhibition will be released at a later date. It will be on display at the British Museum until July next year, with around 7.5 million expected to visit while it is on show in London, and tickets are currently sold out until December.