Jill Biden arrived in France in the early hours of Saturday morning to meet with French first lady Brigitte Macron at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, going from the courtroom in Wilmington, Delaware, to the couture houses of Paris .
The two spouses will share their own visit while Joe Biden and Emmanual Macron hold a bilateral meeting.
The first lady will join the state visit after a boomerang between France and Delaware, where she sat in a Wilmington courtroom while her stepson Hunter faces federal gun charges.
She has made the 3,741-mile flight three times in three days (also changing time zones) to balance the needs of her family with those of being First Lady.
On Friday, he sat front row as Naomi Biden testified on her father’s behalf. She watched as her oldest granddaughter was ambushed on the witness stand over text messages she had sent to her father.
Jill Biden has been shuttling back and forth between Wilmington, Delaware, and France.
She has been steadfast in her support of Hunter and spent four days in court this week, including her birthday on Monday.
The only thing that kept her away were her official duties as first lady in France.
He will leave the courtroom aside on Saturday when he meets Brigitte Macron at the art museum and cultural center outside Paris sponsored by the LVMH group, which owns Louis Vuitton. The French first lady often wears her clothes.
Although they are not “very close,” as a source close to them said, the two first ladies have a lot in common: they are both teachers, they both love literature and words. And they both enjoy a good glass of wine.
“They are not very close, they only met two or three times but it was always good,” said a source.
They bonded in Italy over a glass of wine and then during a visit to the Planeta Palabra Museum in Washington DC when the Macrons made a state visit in December 2022.
President Biden will spend five days in France once the visit ends on Sunday, spending two days on the beaches of Normandy and the rest of his time in Paris.
Jill Biden spent Thursday in France with her husband to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. She and Brigitte were there together when the Macrons joined the Bidens at the American Cemetery to honor D-Day veterans .
Your schedule this week has been a whirlwind.
She flew to France on Wednesday night to be with her husband (the president flew on Air Force One on Tuesday) and left after Thursday’s festivities concluded so she could spend Friday in the courtroom. She boarded her flight to Paris on Friday night and arrived early Saturday.
Fly on a government plane.
Saturday marks the official state portion of President Biden’s visit to France. The first ladies are an essential part of these visits, which are highly ceremonial and symbolic. Women are scrutinized for the clothes they wear, the event they choose to host, and how they act together.
Naomi Biden testified on behalf of her father on Friday
Brigitte Macron and Jill Biden at the Normandy American Cemetery on Thursday to mark the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings during World War II
Despite the language barrier (neither woman speaks the other’s), Jill, 73, and Brigitte, 71, have forged a bond.
“We knew instantly that we liked each other,” Biden said of Macron in December 2022 during the French couple’s state visit.
In addition to being language teachers – Biden teaches English and Macron taught French – both women have emphasized that they have lives outside their political marriage.
“We are women, we had a life before (becoming) first lady and we remain who we are,” Macron said at the time as Jill Biden nodded her head.
And they paved the way for their husbands to come together when the United States and France had a diplomatic dispute.
In 2021, President Macron was outraged when Australia decided to buy nuclear submarines from the United States, reneging on an agreement with the French. Macron was surprised by Australia’s decision to join a US-UK security pact. He recalled his ambassador from Washington DC to Paris.
The two heads of state finally managed to settle their differences and held a one-on-one meeting at the G20 in Italy in October 2021.
Jill Biden had a glass of wine with Brigitte Macron at the Il Marchese bar at the G20 in 2021
Jill Biden and Brigitte Macron shake hands during a visit to the Planeta Palabra Museum in Washington DC in December 2022
Jill and Brigitte did their part to help repair relationships. They went out together for a glass of wine at Il Marchese, a restaurant in Rome, before their husbands’ meeting.
The two women drank Chardonnay and ate small bites.
Afterward, Biden said the time we spent together was “wonderful.”
“It’s nice, two friends together, like sisters,” she said.
