Read Charles Bremner's Paris blog

When the Foreign and Commonwealth Office first asked the Queen if she would mind awfully hosting a state visit by the new French President, the elephant in the room was whether he would bring his new girlfriend. The Palace shrugged its impeccable shoulders. “Whatever,” they said; they are, after all, in the grand hospitality business.

The girlfriend is now the wife, so that’s all right.

It is an incontrovertible fact that the British monarchy’s biggest foreign fan base is in the world’s first two modern republics, France and the US. The Queen has always enjoyed the warmest of welcomes, and the highest level of curiosity, on visits to states that have either toppled or dismissed their own monarchs.

Mrs Sarkozy the younger, known until recently as Carla Bruni, will accompany her husband on all his engagements, her only solo mission being to have lunch with Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister’s wife, while the two men debate affairs of state at Downing Street.

Anglo-French state visits have been a regular feature since Henry VIII met Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520; that event was a washout, because it rained even more than at a Glastonbury festival. The Queen has paid four state visits to France during her reign, and in return she has received Presidents de Gaulle, Giscard d’Estaing, Mitterrand and Chirac. Mr Chirac made an additional visit in 2004 to mark the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, when he, like Mr Sarkozy, stayed at Windsor Castle.

Windsor will be the venue for today’s state visit, not to avoid the congestion of formal carriage processions in Central London, but because it is Easter Week, when the Queen and her court traditionally move to the world’s oldest and largest inhabited castle. She does not move back to London just because she has a state visit in her diary.

The Sarkozys, having flown into Heathrow to be greeted informally by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, will be whisked by car to a site outside Windsor railway station for their formal greeting by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

The French visitors will have the pleasure of a carriage drive through Windsor Home Park to the quadrangle of the castle, where the President will be invited to inspect a guard of honour. It is rather like the British monarch being received at Versailles rather than the Elysée; the crowds will be smaller. Crowds, however, are fickle beasts. Parisians, like Londoners, have better things to do than line streets to welcome foreigners unless they are Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela or the Pope. Mr Sarkozy, nonetheless, has considerable curiosity value, not least because of his wife.

After a private lunch with the Queen and a viewing of Anglo-French items from the Royal Collection, the Sarkozys will set off on the standard royal visit of laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. Then, in a privilege accorded to only a select few visiting heads of state, the President will address both Houses of Parliament. He will, however, do so surrounded by dramatic images of France’s greatest military defeats at the hands of the British: the Royal Gallery is dominated by frescoes on opposite walls, one of Trafalgar, the other of Waterloo.

At the evening state banquet in St George’s Hall, Windsor, the Queen will offer the best of English cuisine. As his visit is so short, Mr Sarkozy will have no chance to retaliate with a return banquet of his own. Previous British state visits to France have often turned into a battle of menus between the Elysée and the equally magnificent British Embassy farther down the same street.

During the banquet Mr Sarkozy’s mind may well drift to higher matters; he will hope that someone will record the England-France football match for him, as there are no widescreen plasma televisions in St George’s Hall.

Tomorrow, the President will have talks with Gordon Brown, first at Downing Street and then at the Emirates Stadium in North London; Arsenal, the usual footballing occupants, have five French players and a French manager. Later the party will sail down the river to Greenwich, where Mr Sarkozy will present the Légion d’honneur to Dame Ellen Macarthur, a heroine in France.

The Queen invited the Sarkozys to stay another night but, after the traditional evening banquet given by the Lord Mayor of London, they have decided to dash home to Paris.

The Palace has again shrugged its shoulders. “Whatever,” they say.

The itinerary

Today

Greeted at Heathrow by the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall

Ceremonial welcome at the Royal Dais with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh

Then the President and Mrs Sarkozy join the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh for a state carriage procession to Windsor Castle. President Sarkozy will accompany The Duke of Edinburgh to review a Guard of Honour in the quadrangle of Windsor Castle

The President and Mrs Sarkozy will visit Westminster Abbey where the President will lay a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior

After a private lunch at Windsor Castle given by the Queen, Her Majesty will conduct the President and Madame Sarkozy to the White Drawing Room to view an exhibition of items from the Royal Collection

President Sarkozy and Mrs Sarkozy visit Parliament. The President will address both Houses in the Royal Gallery

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, and Nick Clegg, Lib Dem leader will visit the President at Buckingham Palace

State Banquet at Windsor Castle

The President and Mrs Sarkozy stay at Windsor Castle

Tomorrow

President and Mrs Sarkozy will formally bid farewell to the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle

Visit to Carlton Gardens, where the President will lay a wreath at the Statue of General de Gaulle

Visit to 10 Downing Street for talks. Mrs Brown will greet Mrs Sarkozy

Visit to the Emirates Stadium for UK-France summit and press conference

Mrs Sarkozy has lunch with Sarah Brown at Lancaster House

The President and Madame Sarkozy will visit the Old Royal Naval College and attend a reception in the Painted Hall

Banquet hosted by the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London

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