“I know a man who’ll read your verse… The President of France.”
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French President Emmanuel Macron has written a poem for a British girl on her 13th birthday, after she sent her own ode to the Eiffel Tower to the presidential palace in Paris.
In her poem called Centre of Attention, written in April, then 12-year-old Sophie praised the famous French monument, which she described as being “pretty as a picture” and “second to none.”
Sophie sent the poem, handwritten over a sketch of the Eiffel Tower, to France’s presidential palace, where then president Francois Hollande was spending his final weeks before the May election that saw Macron taking office.
While the schoolgirl likely wasn’t expecting a response to the eulogy, Macron this week sent her his own poem as a present for her 13th birthday.
A special birthday present for Sophie, 13 today: President
EmmanuelMacron</a>'s reply to her poem on the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EiffelTower?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EiffelTower</a>. Bon anniversaire Sophie! <a href="https://t.co/NxMTbikMBm">pic.twitter.com/NxMTbikMBm</a></p>— French Embassy UK (FranceintheUK) November 1, 2017
In his poem, published in both English and French, Macron recounts Sophie’s encounter with the Eiffel Tower, and writes at the end: “I know a man who’ll read your verse… The President of France.”
The French president recently insisted that one of the best ways to promote understanding between European countries was through cultural exchanges and languages