When French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in New Orleans on Friday, it will be only the third time that France’s head of state has visited the Crescent City.
Brisk, tightly choreographed and highly scrutinized, Macron’s visit will feature new topics of discussion — climate change and the music and film industries — and will presumably lack the political hijinks that almost overshadowed the first visit in 1960 by French lion Charles de Gaulle.
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing traveled to New Orleans more than a decade later in 1976.
Fayçal Falaky, chair of the French and Italian Department at Tulane University, said that while state visits are intended to shore up and strengthen ties between nations and their people, each is a unique product of its time.
Given de Gaulle's stature and the fact that it was the first ever visit by France's president, the 1960 stop was a massive public event. There was also a more widespread sense of French identity in the city and region.
Less than two decades after World War II, "you still have a large number of people speaking Cajun or Creole (French) ... and seeing themselves as more French," Falaky said. "Symbolically, he was very important here."
'Le Grand Charles' arrives
De Gaulle, arguably France’s most-revered modern leader, was greeted April 28 by throngs of New Orleanians waving little French flags at a downtown parade in his honor. Banners hung throughout the city center proclaiming 'Viva de Gaulle,' and General de Gaulle Drive was christened to pay tribute to the French president.
But a long running feud between Louisiana Gov. Earl K. Long and New Orleans Mayor deLesseps "Chep" Morrison, who had run against each other for statewide office, would stubbornly bubble to the surface, according to an account in the Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association.
Morrison, whom the populist Long used to taunt as an elitist urbanite who was “as smooth as a peeled onion,” only invited Long — who had recently been institutionalized and was known for boorish behavior — to one event, a luncheon set for the second day.
Long had an aide contact the mayor’s office, which claimed it was an oversight and told him to meet the procession on Canal Street for the parade. There, Long attempted to get into the car carrying the mayor and French president, but was rebuffed by de Gaulle's bodyguard, historian Philip Cook wrote in the journal.
Fearing the governor would make a scene, a solution was found. A decorated WWII hero who had formerly been one of Long’s assistants stepped in and invited Long to ride up front with him, where “Uncle Earl waved his Panama hat to the huge crowd and had a grand time,” Cook wrote.
With upwards of 50,000 gathered for the parade, Cook wrote that one of de Gaulle’s traveling companions called it “the wildest reception” the president had received in the U.S.
For lunch, a scene
The shenanigans continued the following day at the reception in the Roosevelt’s International Room, where Long had been invited as one of the speakers addressing 1,000 guests. Cook wrote that a security officer noticed Long was carrying a gun, which the governor explained by saying that “he did not need bodyguards because he was his own bodyguard.”
Asked if he planned to harm de Gaulle, Long replied, "Good Lord no. I think he is a great man, and I am just tickled to see him."
As the formalities drew near, Morrison replaced Long's name card at the seat next to de Gaulle with his, and moved Long to the end of the table.
Morrison also told the governor to keep his remarks to five minutes, and when it came time to speak, Long “gave a three-minute talk, donned his Panama hat and left the room before de Gaulle spoke, telling the mayor as he walked by that he was giving him ‘two minutes back,’” Cook wrote.
Long’s departure did not go unnoticed by the guest of honor, thanked “‘the honorable governor of Louisiana who unfortunately has left us before the end of our luncheon, but I do appreciate his kind words,'” Cook wrote.
The antics of the two feuding, lame-duck pols was fodder for the press statewide, and even the New York Times devoted a column to it, noting Long’s “unconcern for protocol” but adding that the governor’s speech was “one of the highlights of the luncheon,” Cook detailed.
The Shreveport Times, which was the most critical among the local press, referred to Long as “the madcap governor” and reported that he “spit in his ashtray and then engaged in a brief wrestling match with an admiral that nearly resulted in de Gaulle being shoved into a dinner plate.”
While the squabbling garnered the attention of reporters and the elite, for the general public, the visit was a smash.
Cook wrote that at the farewell reception in Jackson Square, de Gaulle ignored security and went into the crowd, ‘shaking hands with everyone in sight.’
Long would later say de Gaulle wrote him “a wonderful letter of thanks,” according to Cook, and even Morrison “seemed to forgive and forget,” writing in a letter to a friend that “even Earl behaved.”
Less drama in '76
Sixteen years later, Giscard d'Estaing came to New Orleans, also for about 24 hours, having stopped in Lafayette earlier in the day on May 21, 1976. He had come to the U.S. to meet with President Gerald Ford in honor of the U.S. Bicentennial.
This time, there was no disruptive clash of egos, but Gov. Edwin Edwards, another Louisiana politician with populist charm and a flair for the dramatic, found a way to leave his mark on the French president’s visit. Along with Mayor Moon Landrieu, Edwards hosted a massive luncheon on the field of the Superdome that was open to the general public.
About 1,500 people snapped up tickets, which could be bought for $25 at D.H. Holmes department stores and Century National Bank branches, and guests were also admitted at the door.
Fifty chefs and cooks prepared oyster and andouille soup, filet of flounder stuffed with oyster dressing, asparagus, salad with crawfish and a special dressing made for the visit. Chocolate mousse was for dessert, and coffee and a California wine were served at 185 tables as the four scoreboards flashed welcome for the French president overhead.
Giscard d'Estaing then toured the French Quarter before attending a black-tie dinner hosted by the city at the Cabildo as a jazz band played on the patio. That night, Le Bal des Petits Lits Blancs was attended by about a thousand wealthy and internationally prominent guests, with singer Paul Anka among the entertainers.
Giscard d’Estaing was whisked away the following day in a Concorde, among the first such flights of the supersonic jets in the U.S., as the first lady went to Mississippi to christen a U.S. Navy destroyer.
There was one coda of controversy to Giscard d’Estaing’s visit, however.
The Times-Picayune reported the following day that New Orleans police and the FBI were investigating the theft of $150,000 in jewels from at least three hotel rooms occupied by visiting French dignitaries.