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A decadent dinner costing nearly €475,000 for England's King Charles III sent Emmanuel Macron's Elysée Palace in France into a record deficit last year.
France's love of grand gestures and lavish dining is on full display in the pages of a damning annual audit of the Elysee budget, released Monday by the Cour des Comptes, France's highest court of audit.
The Elysee's expenses, which include costs related to the president's diplomatic and presidential duties, as well as administration, personnel, security and property management, amounted to 125 million euros.
Among the biggest drivers of the deficit were two lavish state dinners, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and King Charles III.
Macron hosted the British head of state in September last year at Versailles, the historic home of the French monarchy, with a star-studded party of at least 160 guests, including Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger and British actor Hugh Grant.
The dinner, during which guests feasted on blue lobster, cost the French presidency approximately €475,000 – including over €165,000 for catering and over €40,000 for wine (including a bottle of Château Mouton Rothschild 2004) and other drinks.
Third-party caterers and decorators drove up costs for receptions held outside the Elysee, as was the case with Charles III and Modi, who was welcomed to the Louvre and shown some of France's most-visited museum masterpieces by Macron himself .
The total cost was over €400,000.
France's court of audit, however, acknowledged some cost-saving efforts, highlighting the Elysee's savings when hosting "cocktail parties for fewer than 100 people," events during which Palace kitchen staff are usually preferred over outside contractors.
The Cour des Comptes also criticized the French presidency's poor travel planning skills, noting a loss of over €830,000 created by the cancellation of 12 apparently irreversible trips. A planned but subsequently canceled trip to Germany in July 2023 alone led to a loss of nearly €500,000, mainly due to transport and accommodation costs.
Responding to the sums involved after the publication of the report, the Élysée said: "France maintains close diplomatic relations with a large number of countries, which organize equal events when they receive the head of state."
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