François Hollande à la Maison Blanche: devine qui vient dîner?

François Hollande devait devait être accompagné de Valérie Trierweiler pour sa prochaine visite à Washington. Le Président français se présentera seul, bousculant un peu le protocole à la Maison Blanche. Pour sa visite le Président Obama mettra en lumière la longue relation entre les Français et les Américains. François Hollande aura droit à la visite de Monticello, le demeure de Thomas Jefferson qui fut un francophile notoire.

 "The White House is nonetheless making an extra effort to put on display the nation’s historic and cultural ties with France. Mr. Obama will take Mr. Hollande to Charlottesville, Va., on Monday for a tour of Monticello, the home of Revolutionary America’s most prominent Francophile, Thomas Jefferson. Any separate spouse’s program that typically would have been arranged has surely been canceled.

 For the state dinner, the Obamas will host an extravagant, multicourse, black-tie event with government officials, business leaders, political fund-raisers and celebrities like the actor Bradley Cooper. To allow a larger guest list, the dinner will be held not in the State Dining Room, but in a pavilion-style tent on the South Lawn.

 Jeremy Bernard, the White House social secretary, is organizing the dinner under the direction of Mrs. Obama. He has brought in Bryan Rafanelli, the Boston-based event planner who orchestrated Chelsea Clinton’s wedding and whose website says he serves “some of the most successful people, companies and brands in the world.”

 http://app.nytimes.com/#2014/02/09/nytfrontpage/french-love-triangle-stirs-pot-for-tricky-white-house-dinner