King Charles and Emmanuel Macron try to show there is no needle between Britain and France as they view the Bayeux Tapestry together.
His Majesty and the French president enjoyed a joke while walking the artwork’s 230ft length at the British Museum yesterday.
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The 950-year-old masterpiece, which depicts the 1066 Battle of Hastings and Norman Conquest, is in the UK temporarily in an act of diplomacy agreed after Mr Macron’s State Visit to Windsor Castle last year.
The King hailed it as an “unprecedented loan”.
Charles, Camilla, Mr Macron and his wife Brigitte viewed the work along with PM Andy Burnham and his wife Marie-France van Heel.
They paused at key points along the 11th century artwork to hear from curators about the historic moments depicted.
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They included King Harold’s death after supposedly being shot in the eye at Hastings.
Charles, speaking later in both French and English at the London museum, said the tapestry is a reminder “that our two nations have been bound together for almost a millennium”.
He said that although the artwork depicts a conflict, “here it is today, nearly a thousand years later, as a precious symbol of trust, at a time when trust seems sadly to be in short supply between nations”.
He added those involved in it would be “pleased our two great nations have prospered together across the tides of history”.
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The tapestry is on display from September 10 to next July, and tickets until December 31 — costing up to £33 — are already sold out.
Britain is sending the treasures of Sutton Hoo to France in return.
BACK FOR 1ST TIME IN 949 YEARS
THE tapestry was commissioned in the 1070s by senior bishop Odo of Bayeux – the half-brother of William the Conqueror.
It is thought to have been stitched together in or around Canterbury, Kent, by celebrated English needleworkers.
The tapestry was then taken to Normandy on a merchant ship for the official opening of Bayeux Cathedral in 1077.