Paris,
\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday celebrated his birthday at the iconic chateau of King Francois I, a choice denounced by critics as an example of how he is \u201ccut off from the people\u201d.<\/p>\n
Macron, who turns 40 on Thursday, is spending the weekend with his wife Brigitte and extended family at the chateau of Chambord in France\u2019s Loire Valley, the French daily La Nouvelle Republique reported.<\/p>\n
With its fairy tale facade, elaborately turreted roofline and vast grounds, Chambord is probably the valley\u2019s best-known Renaissance chateau, located about 200 kilometres (125 miles) southwest of Paris.<\/p>\n
Macron and his family will stay at one of the cottages on the vast estate, French media said, with a birthday gala to be held today evening in one of the castle\u2019s 440 rooms.<\/p>\n
The estate has several four-star guest houses which can be rented for 800 to 1,000 euros (USD 950 to USD 1,200) per weekend.<\/p>\n
The Elysee Palace said Macron and his wife were using private funds to pay for their stay.<\/p>\n
But the choice of venue was still criticised from some French politicians.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is he celebrating his birthday at Chambord?\u201d asked radical-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, quoted in the newspaper Le Figaro.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a strange idea! I am so republican that everything about royal symbols exasperates me, I find it ridiculous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the French suffer from taxes, insecurity, immigration, Macron celebrates his 40th birthday at Chambord,\u201d rightwing politician Nicolas Dupont-Aignan said on Twitter.<\/p>\n
\u201cEras go by but the oligarchy remains cut off from the people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Commissioned nearly 500 years ago by King Francois I (1494-1547), the immense chateau remains the largest of the Loire grand estates, boasting 365 chimneys and a 5,500-hectare (21-square mile) estate.<\/p>\n
It also has boasts the largest enclosed forest park in Europe, a long-time favourite for presidential hunts.<\/p>\n
The chateau, which attracts some two million visitors each year, has been listed as a regional UNESCO World Heritage cultural site.<\/p>\n
Macron, a media darling during his campaign, has seen his image as a monarchical or even \u201cpharaonic\u201d leader climb from the night of his election, which featured a theatrical production at the foot of the Louvre pyramid in Paris.<\/p>\n
Several newspapers have also expressed unease over the growing concentration of power in the presidency, and critics have said his use of executive orders to ram through landmark reform in September did not help matters.<\/p>\n
In July, the cover of the left-wing Liberation newspaper mockingly depicted him as Jupiter, the Roman king of gods, and accused him of failing to share power\u2014an accusation echoed by Le Monde daily.<\/p>\n
Jupiter is now regularly used by Macron\u2019s critics who accuse his centrist government of favouring the rich.<\/p>\n
The president also on Saturday visited Beauval Zoo, home to France\u2019s first panda cub, which Brigitte baptised\u2014becoming the fluffy bear\u2019s \u201cgodmother\u201d\u2014earlier in the month.<\/p>\n
Macron, his wife and several relatives went to the zoo in the village Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher after having lunch at the nearby Le Bacchus restaurant, an AFP correspondent said.<\/p>\n
Brigitte, in one of her most high-profile outings since her husband\u2019s election, cooed over the panda cub at a ceremony on December 4 before a Chinese minister unveiled its name as Yuan Meng, which means \u201cmaking a dream come true\u201d in Chinese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday celebrated his birthday at the iconic chateau of King Francois I, a choice denounced by critics as an example of how he is \u201ccut off from the people\u201d. Macron, who turns 40 on Thursday, is spending the weekend with his wife Brigitte and extended family at the chateau […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14035,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14033\/revisions\/14035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}