Pomp, Velazquez and Republican exiles greet Spain’s royals in Paris

Spain’s new royal couple are set for a flavour of France’s Spanish – and Republican – elite as they begin their maiden state visit to Paris on Tuesday. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were expected in the French capital earlier this year but the state visit was postponed following the Germanwings plane crash, in which 51 Spanish nationals were killed. Tuesday’s crowded schedule featured the customary pomp and circumstance, including military honours at the Arc de Triomphe, Parisian boulevards lined with Spanish flags and an evening banquet at the Élysée Palace. In between, king and queen were due to visit a landmark exhibition on the great Spanish painter Diego Velazquez at the Grand Palais, before presiding over a ceremony to decorate the emergency personnel who worked at the site of the Germanwings crash. On Wednesday, Felipe VI and his wife will attend the inauguration of the "Jardin des combattants de la Nueve", a public garden named after the Spanish Republicans who helped liberate the French capital from Nazi rule. They will be alongside the French capital’s Mayor Anne Hidalgo, a Spanish-born Socialist whose family fled Andalusia after the civil war before briefly returning to Spain. Felipe and Letizia will later have lunch with another product of Spain’s diaspora, France’s Catalan-born Prime Minister Manuel Valls, also a Socialist and the son of Spanish Republicans. The Spanish king will round off the day with a trip down memory lane, addressing French lawmakers at the Palais Bourbon, today a symbol of French Republicanism but once the home of France’s Bourbon dynasty – whose Spanish branch is still Spain’s royal family. Felipe took power after his father, Juan Carlos, abdicated a year ago. Spain’s new head of state has pledged a more modest monarchy and sought to boost the royal family's image after a spate of scandals. Date created : 2015-06-02