In his second high-profile foreign visit in less than a fortnight, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in France on July 13 and 14, with the highlight being a ceremonial dinner at the Cour Marly courtyard at the famous Louvre museum, expected to be attended by around 250 people. Filled with natural light and home to a forest of ficus trees, Cour Marly has an army of statues made by the finest sculptors of the world. After a sumptuous vegetarian spread, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to take the Indian leader for a guided tour of the Louvre. The two leaders may even get photographed with Louvre’s most famous resident, the Mona Lisa, a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance by Leonardo Da Vinci.
According to officials familiar with the matter in New Delhi and Paris, Modi will address a diaspora event at La Seine Musicale, a performing arts centre located on IIe Seguin island in scenic Seine river, in the western suburbs of Paris on the first day. Inaugurated in 2017, La Seine Musicale has hosted Bob Dylan in the 6,000-seat Grand Seine theatre, where Modi will address the Indian diaspora on July 13. La Seine Musicale is currently hosting the Festival of India called “Namaste France”, organised by the Indian Embassy in France and the ministry of culture.
This will be followed by a private dinner hosted by Macron at Elysee Palace, during which the two leaders are expected to discuss crucial global and bilateral issues. Formal delegation level talks will follow after the Bastille Day parade on Champs Elysees in front of the French President on July 14. A 269-strong contingent of Indian Army from Punjab Regiment and Rajputana Rifles will participate in the parade on the ground, while one Indian Air Force Rafale fighter will be in the air show, with three other Rafales following in a formation. INS Chennai, an indigenous guided missile destroyer of the Indian Navy, will be stationed at the strategic port of Brest, where the nuclear ballistic missile firing submarines (SSBNs) of the French Navy are stationed.
But the grand show will follow after the delegation-level talks in Paris when the action shifts to Paris’s two most recognisable landmarks, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. After the dinner and the tour of the Louvre, Modi and Macron will attend the fireworks display over Eiffel Tower from the terrace at Louvre.
