The visit will showcase Louisiana’s unique French language and culture and will be the first by a French President in almost 50 years.

© Rémi Jouan, CC-BY-SA, GNU Free Documentation License, Wikimedia Commons

Will McGrew, PDG/CEO, Télé-Louisiane

After much speculation, the news is now official: the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron will visit New Orleans on Friday, December 2. Télé-Louisiane broke the news last Friday after receiving confirmation from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We were the first US and Louisiana media outlet to confirm the visit.

President Emmanuel Macron will be in the economic capital of Louisiana for one full day following his state visit to Washington, DC. The three focuses of his tour to the Bayou State will be the persistence of the French language in Louisiana, climate change, and the unique culture and music of our State. The President’s agenda will include a meeting with Governor John Bel Edwards on climate, a second-line in the French Quarter, and an event dedicated to the French language in Louisiana and the United States.

On the final point, Macron plans to announce a new US-wide program funded by the French government to support French language education, but no Louisiana-specific educational initiatives have been announced despite the State’s unique relationship with the French language.

Macron will be the third French President to visit Louisiana and the first in almost 50 years—after Charles de Gaulle in 1960 and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1976.

Updated November 28. More information to come.