Slammed for ‘royal’ birthday

Macron criticised for celebrating 40th at opulent chateau

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron celebrated his birthday at the iconic chateau of King Francois I, a choice denounced by critics as an example of how he is “cut off from the people”.

Macron, who turns 40 on Thursday, is spending the weekend with his wife Brigitte and extended family at the chateau of Chambord in France’s Loire Valley, local French newspaper La Nouvelle Republique reported.

With its fairy tale facade, elaborately turreted roofline and vast grounds, Chambord is probably the valley’s bestknown Renaissance chateau, located about 200km southwest of Paris.

Macron and his family will stay at

one of the cottages on the vast estate, French media said, with a birthday gala to be held on Saturday evening in one of the castle’s 440 rooms.

The estate has several fourstar guest houses which can be rented

  for 800 to 1,000 (RM3,844 to RM4,805) per weekend.

The Elysee Palace said Macron and his wife were using private funds to pay for their stay.

But the choice of venue was criticised by several French politicians.

“Why is he celebrating his birthday at Chambord?” asked radicalleft firebrand JeanLuc Melenchon, quoted in the newspaper Le Figaro.

“What a strange idea! I am so republican that everything about royal symbols exasperates me, I find it ridiculous,” he said.

“While the French suffer from taxes, insecurity, immigration, Macron celebrates his 40th birthday at Chambord,” rightwing politician Nicolas DupontAignan said on Twitter.

“Eras go by but the oligarchy remains cut off from the people,” he said.

Commissioned nearly 500 years ago by King Francois I (14941547), the immense chateau remains the largest of the Loire grand estates, boasting 365 chimneys and a 5,500ha estate.

It also has boasts the largest enclosed forest park in Europe, a longtime favourite for presidential hunts.

The chateau, which attracts some two million visitors each year, has been listed as a regional Unescoo World Heritage cultural site.

While the French suffer from taxes, insecurity, immigration, Macron celebrates his 40th birthday at Chambord. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan