Dinner at Louvre, Photo with Mona Lisa: Here is PM Modi’s Itinerary for 2-Day France Visit – News18

French President Emmanuel Macron will show PM Modi the Louvre Museum and the two leaders may get photographed with the iconic Mona Lisa painting during the Indian PM’s visit to Paris next week.

PM Modi will address a diaspora event at La Seine Musicale, a music and performing arts center located on Ile Seguin Island in scenic Seine River in Paris, Hindustan Times quoted sources as saying.

La Seine Musicale, inaugurated in 2017, had earlier hosted American folk-rock singer Bob Dylan in the 6000-seat Grand Seine theatre. The hall is currently hosting the Festival of India called “Namaste France, organized by the Indian Embassy in France and the Ministry of Culture.

PM Modi will attend this year’s Bastille Day Parade as the guest of honour in Paris on July 14. The prime minister is set to hold extensive talks with French President Emmanuel Macron during the visit.

This marks a very rare occasion as France is not known for inviting foreign dignitaries every year to annual Parade. Bastille Day is marked by a special military parade at the Champs Elysees in Paris.

During the visit, PM Modi will also be hosted by the French President for a private dinner at his official residence at Elysee Palace.

At the private dinner, the two leaders will discuss global and bilateral issues and the formal delegation level talks will follow after the Bastille Day parade on July 14.

During the Bastille Day parade, 269-member tri-services contingent of the Indian armed forces will participate in the parade on the ground while three Rafale fighter jets of the Indian Air Force will also take part in the flypast over the Champs Elysees on the occasion along with French jets.

The visit also includes President Macron hosting Modi at Cour Marly courtyard at Louvre Museum for a ceremonial dinner, which will be attended by over 250 dignitaries.

Modi and Macron are also expected to get photographed with the museum’s most prized possession, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance.

The two leaders after a tour of the Louvre, which hosts several other masterpieces, will attend the dazzling fireworks display over Eiffel Tower from the terrace at Louvre.

Modi’s trip to Paris will be special as it will be the first Bastille Day visit by a foreign leader in Macron’s current term, they said. The visit holds great importance as it will strengthen the India-France Strategic Partnership.