Jill Biden arrived in France in the early hours of Saturday morning to join French first lady Brigitte Macron at the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris, going from the Wilmington, Del., courtroom to the couture houses of Paris.
The two spouses will share their own visit while Joe Biden and Emmanual Macron hold a bilateral meeting.
The first lady is joining the state visit after boomeranging between France and Delaware, where she has been sitting in a Wilmington courtroom while her stepson Hunter faces federal gun charges.
She has done the 3,741 miles flight three times in three days – changing time zones too – in order to balance her family needs with being First Lady.
On Friday, she sat in the front row while Naomi Biden testified on her father’s behalf. She watched as her eldest granddaughter was ambushed on the witness stand about texts she had sent to her dad.
Jill Biden has been boomeranging back and forth between Wilmington, Del., and France
She has been steadfast in her support of Hunter, spending four days at the courthouse this week, including her birthday on Monday.
The only thing that her kept her away was her official first lady duties in France.
She’ll put the courtroom aside on Saturday when she joins Brigitte Macron at the art museum and cultural center on the outskirts of Paris that is sponsored by the group LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton. The French first lady often wears their clothing.
While not ‘super close,’ as one source close to them said, the two first ladies have a lot in common: they are both teachers, they both love literature and words. And they both enjoy a nice glass of wine.
‘They are not super close – they met only two or three times but it always went well,’ a source said.
They bonded in Italy over a glass of wine and then during a visit to the Planet Word Museum in Washington D.C. when the Macrons made a state visit in December 2022.
President Biden will clock five days in France once the visit ends on Sunday, spending two days on the beaches at Normandy and the rest of his time in Paris.
Jill Biden spent Thursday in France with her husband to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. She and Brigitte were together there when the Macrons joined the Bidens at the American Cemetery to honor the D-Day veterans.
Her schedule this week has been a whirl wind.
She flew to France on Wednesday night to be with be husband (the president flew over on Air Force One on Tuesday) and left after Thursday’s festivities concluded so she could spend Friday in the courtroom. She boarded her flight to Paris on Friday night, arriving early Saturday.
She flies via a government jet.
Saturday marks the official state portion of President Biden’s visit to France. First ladies are essential parts of these visits, which are highly ceremonial and symbolic. The women are dissected for the clothes they wear and the event they choose to do and how they act together.
Naomi Biden testified on her father’s behalf on Friday
Brigitte Macron and Jill Biden at the American cemetery in Normandy on Thursday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings during World War II
Despite the language barrier – neither woman speaks the other’s – Jill, 73, and Brigitte, 71, have forged a bond.
‘We instantly, you know, knew that we liked each other,’ Biden said of Macron in December 2022 during the French couple’s state visit.
In addition to be language teachers – Biden teaches English and Macron taught French – both women have emphasized they have lives outside their political marriage.
‘We’re women, we had a life before [becoming] first lady, and we stay what we are,’ Macron said at that time as Jill Biden nodded in agreement.
And they have paved the way for their husbands to bond when the U.S. and France had a diplomatic dispute.
In 2021, President Macron was outraged when Australia decided to buy nuclear subs from the United States, reneging on a deal with the French. Macron was blindsided by Australia’s decision, which it made to join a U.S. and UK security pact. He recalled his ambassador from Washington D.C. back to Paris.
The two heads of states eventually managed to patch up their differences, holding a one-on-one meeting at the G20 in Italy in October 2021.
Jill Biden had a glass of wine with Brigitte Macron at Il Marchese bar at the G20 in 2021
Jill Biden and Brigitte Macron hold hands during a visit to the Planet Word Museum in Washington DC in December 2022
Jill and Brigitte did their part to help repair relations. They went out together for a glass of wine at Il Marchese, a restaurant in Rome, ahead of their husbands’ sit down.
The two women sipped Chardonnay and ate small bites.
Afterward, Biden said the time spent together was ‘wonderful.’
‘It’s nice, two friends together, just like sisters,’ she said.
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