Ready!
Because Charles has been out of royal action for a while, he was unable to attend the celebrations of the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale. But that is absolutely no reason to panic, because the British royal family has appointed a worthy replacement: Duchess Sophie of Edinburgh and husband Duke Edward of Edinburgh!
First changing of the guard with French troops
For the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale, a special ceremony celebrated the English-French bond. Due to the illness for which King Charles is currently being treated, he was unfortunately unable to attend. But luckily he has a lot of stand-ins ready to take on his royal duties.
This time it was time for the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh to step out of their shadows and make their appearance during the first changing of the guard attended by French soldiers. Sophie and Edward of Edinburgh inspected the 32 members of the 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiments of the Garde Republicaine and then the 40 guards of F Company Scots Guards during the official occasion. A unique moment, as this was the first time that a non-Commonwealth country took part in the ceremony.
Getting used to the new role
Dressed in a beautiful white midi dress, combined with a cream-colored trench coat, Sophie completed her look with beautiful nude pumps. Very striking, since the duchess has often moved into the background as a working royal. She always had a very modest role in The Firm – where she has been working as a full-time royal since 2002.
However, this took some getting used to for the Duchess, as she said in conversation with Tatler: “It definitely took a while before I found my feet. For me, the frustration was in tempering my expectations around what I could actually do,” says Sophie. “I couldn’t walk into a charity and say, ‘OK, I think you should do this and that’, as I was used to in my working life. I really had to take a huge step back and realize ‘They want you to be the icing on the cake, the person who comes and praises the funders and the volunteers. Not necessarily the person who comes and tells them how to complete their communication plan.’”
Source: Nouveau | Image: NL Image
