The Red Arrows and Patrouille de France perform a spectacular flypast over Paris

The Red Arrows and their French equivalent, the Patrouille de France, today performed a spectacular flypast over Paris ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s visit to London on the 80th anniversary of Charles de Gaulle’s famous rallying cry to resist the Nazis.

Red, white and blue smoke was streaked across the horizon of the French capital this morning ahead of their journey over the English Channel this afternoon.

The aerobatics squadrons will flyover Buckingham Palace at 5pm when Prince Charles welcomes the French President to commemorate his predecessor General de Gaulle’s famous appeal to resist Nazi occupation during World War II.

General De Daulle led his free forces from London, which Mr Macron will decorate with the Legion of Honour – France’s highest order of merit.

The general’s appeal (‘L’appel’) to the people of France on June 18, 1940, is thought to mark the foundation of French resistance to the German occupation and is comparable to Winston Churchill’s ‘We shall fight on the beaches.’ 

After refusing to support an armistice with the Nazis and facing imminent arrest, de Gaulle fled to London – arriving the day before he made his famous speech.

Broadcast in French on the BBC, de Gaulle told his countrymen: ‘The generals who, for many years, have been at the head of the French armies, have formed a government. This government, claiming the defeat of our armies, has made contact with the enemy to halt the fighting.’

The future president of France described how the country had been overwhelmed by Germany’s blitzkrieg tactics and its seemingly ‘infinite’ supply of tanks and fighter planes.

But he said: ‘Has the last word been said? Must all hope disappear? Is defeat definitive? No! Believe me, I am speaking to you with a full understanding of the facts and I tell you that nothing is lost for France.’

Listing France’s supporters, he said: ‘She is not alone! She is not alone! She has a vast empire behind her, she can form an alliance with the British Empire which holds the seas and continues the fight.

‘She can, like England, call upon without limit the immense industry of the United States.’

He continued: ‘This war is a world war. All the mistakes, all the delays, all the suffering do not prevent the fact there are, in the universe, all the means to one day crush our enemies.

‘Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must never be extinguished and it will never be extinguished.’

Despite reaching only a small French audience at the time, the speech is considered one of the most important in all of France’s history and a seminal moment in the Second World War.

Its significance is comparable to Sir Winston Churchill’s ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ speech delivered earlier that same month.

Despite the honour of Mr Macron’s visit to Buckingham Palace, an Élysée Palace source said the pomp would be accompanied by tense behind-the-scenes discussions with Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Thorny issues including Brexit and the muddled handling of the Coronavirus pandemic will dominate talks after Mr Macron praises the former ‘Capital of Free France’.

‘We have plenty of reasons to blame the English at the moment, but that does not erase the role played during the war,’ said the presidential aide.

In a pointed dig at moves to remove statues such as one of Winston Churchill from Westminster, the source added: ‘We are not rewriting history’.

It came as Mr Macron’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said Britain was still struggling to understand the implications of its decision to leave the EU.

In a hard-hitting interview in Le Croix, Mr Le Drian said: ‘When you are outside the Union, you do not enjoy the same advantages as when you are inside. You cannot have a foot in and a foot out.

‘You have to choose, and I am not sure that they have understood the full magnitude of their withdrawal.’

Mr Drian did not rule out the EU failing to reach a trade deal with Britain, which stops abiding by EU rules in January.

‘We cannot exclude the prospect of a No Deal but we want to avoid it,’ said Mr Le Drian.

‘The British are playing against the clock but that is not always the way to reach a good agreement,’ he added.

There was anger in Paris when the British imposed strict Coronavirus quarantine rules for those arriving from France, but Mr Macron and his presidential aides will not abide by them.

Mr Johnson ‘made it clear that they can be waived for those on diplomatic business,’ said the Élysée source.

Beyond Mr Johnson, Mr Macron will be meeting dignitaries including Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall today, but French first lady Brigitte Macron will stay in Paris.

‘She is undergoing an eye operation,’ said the source, who explained that Ms Macron, who at 67 is 25 years older than her husband, will be wearing tinted glasses and not travelling ‘for the next few weeks.’