PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins begins a three-day trip to Paris today where he will meet with French President Francois Hollande and attend a number of cultural events.

Higgins will arrive in the French capital later this morning where he will receive a ceremonial welcome with full military honours at L’Arc de Triomphe.

He will deliver a lecture entitled ‘Defining Europe in the Year of the European Citizen’ at the Paris-Sorbonne University before he meets with President Hollande at 3pm.

Later he will visit the Eileen Gray Exhibition at the Centre Pompidou and then attend a dinner at the Irish embassy in Paris.

Tomorrow the President delivers an address entitled ‘Drawing water from the same well – the central importance of UNESCO in building peace through the recognition of the power of culture’ at UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

A Franco-Irish business networking lunch and later an Irish community reception are also on the agenda before the President spends his last day of the trip laying a wreath in memory of Jean Monnet at the Panthéon and visiting the Centre Culturel Irlandais.

Higgins’ trip concludes on Wednesday with a lunch at the Irish embassy for political and cultural friends of Ireland in France.

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