By Steve Holland
VERSAILLES, France, June 17 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte hosted U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday at the Palace of Versailles, once the opulent residence of Louis XIV, the Sun King, as part of efforts to improve transatlantic relations.
Macron and his wife greeted Trump on the steps of the palace, before the three posed for photographs. "It's beautiful," Trump said.
The U.S. president earlier said he had accepted Macron's invitation to have dinner at Versailles, near Paris, because he was "a fan of beautiful places."
"Versailles is not gold leaf. Versailles is the real deal," Trump said, speaking on Tuesday at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, close to Switzerland.
He repeated his delight over the invitation earlier on Wednesday, saying: "This evening I'm looking forward to a very special dinner with President Macron and his fabulous wife in the palace of Versailles. ... it's a beautiful palace, maybe the most beautiful of all."
Trump's relations with his European counterparts have been fraught over the past years, on issues ranging from tariffs to the Iran war or Ukraine. But both sides said the G7 summit had gone well, in particular with a joint statement agreed over Ukraine.
The Versailles Palace was intended from the beginning as a dazzling setting to project the power and majesty of the French monarchy, especially by Louis XIV, who supervised its construction and moved his court there in the late 17th century.
Centuries later France is now a republic and French presidents still use Versailles to impress.
"In any leader's relationship, whether we're talking about (Chinese President) Xi (Jinping), (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, or Macron, you want to be on this American president's good side," said Jeffrey Hawkins, a former U.S. diplomat and an expert on French-U.S. relations. "And a way to do that is to host him, to welcome him, in a way where he feels well-received, where he feels important and respected."
As Trump neared the palace, a sizable number of people lined up to watch his motorcade pass by.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Elissa Darwish and Michel Rose; Writing by Ingrid Melander, editing by Deepa Babington)
