French get royal nod to rename Le Touquet airport after Queen Elizabeth

A French seaside resort has renamed its airport after the late Queen Elizabeth II, with her son King Charles’s blessing. Le Touquet received the official support of the king on Monday for the change, the northern resort’s town hall said. “The international airport of Le Touquet Paris-Plage is about to undergo a historic transformation by taking on the name ‘Elizabeth II International Airport of Le Touquet Paris-Plage’,” it said. “This is a tribute to a great Queen and her uncle who had a fondness for France, as well as a recognition of the ‘most British of French resorts’,” it added, saying an inauguration date had yet to be set. The authorities had requested the name change just days after the queen died on 8 September last year aged 96. The town hall noted that the queen’s uncle, Edward VIII, used to travel over by plane to enjoy horseback riding and sand yachting, sometimes accompanied by his niece. Le Touquet, about an hour’s drive south of Calais, is a popular resort where the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte, have a home. By the 1900s, the area’s attractive forested seaside location had become so popular with Parisiens that it became known as Le Touquet-Paris Plage.<br/>