The invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron to President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump to join him in Paris for that city’s annual Bastille Day festivities later this week was a signal to the hopefulness of a lasting friendship. The addition of dinner at the city’s famed Le Jules Verne restaurant was a signal that he really means it.
According to French magazine, Paris Match, Macron will host the Trumps and their delegation for dinner on Thursday night at the decadent restaurant, which is located on the second level of the Eiffel Tower and boasts an insane view of the City of Lights. You get there via private elevator.
There is buzz that the meal, likely helmed by Le Jules Verne’s award-winning chef, Alain Ducasse, could feature blue lobster and caviar, staples on the six-course, $260 prix fixe menu offered by the restaurant. (Blue lobsters, by the way, are essentially like East Coast American lobsters, only they’re blue until cooked, and then their shells turn red.)
The restaurant and the White House did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment on the dinner.
In 2015, President Barack Obama was also feted at a fancy French restaurant, by then-French President François Hollande — the group dined at the Michelin three-starred eatery, L’Ambroisie.
At the dinner, a pool report stated a reporter’s microphone got a little too close for comfort with one of the restaurant’s opulent lights, which prompted Obama to say, “Don’t break the chandelier. You can’t afford it.”
A multi-course dinner at L’Ambroisie costs between $350 and 400.
Macron last month invited Trump to Paris to be present for the Bastille Day parade, which this year will include American soldiers to mark the 100-year anniversary since the United States joined its allies in World War I.
“The two leaders will further build on the strong counter-terrorism cooperation and economic partnership between the two countries, and they will discuss many other issues of mutual concern,” the White House said in a statement about the trip.