A “gala” dinner orchestrated by the teams of chef Alain Ducasse will be organized for around a hundred heads of state and personalities at the Louvre in Paris on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, AFP learned from concordant sources.
The traditional and prestigious dinner known as “the president” of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), co-organized with the French presidency, will take place on July 25 under the Louvre pyramid, AFP learned from the teams of Alain Ducasse, of the IOC and the Élysée.
The first edition of this meeting desired by IOC President Thomas Bach dates back to Sochi in Russia in 2014.
A “diplomatic moment”
The Élysée also wishes to take advantage of the presence of invited heads of state and personalities from varied backgrounds to make this meal a “diplomatic moment”, without any other details on the participants, the content or even the menu, do not leak at this point.
In December, French President Emmanuel Macron announced around the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics (July 26-August 11) “a major initiative for the children of the planet” on issues of health, food and 'education.
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Alain Ducasse, the most starred chef in the world and a key element of French “gastrodiplomacy” abroad, had already been in charge of the state dinners of François Hollande and Xi Jinping in 2014, those of Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin in 2017 or Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump at the Eiffel Tower the same year.