Britain's Prince Charles And Camilla Join French President Nicolas Sarkozy And Wife Carla Bruni In France

Britain's Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall joined her husband Prince Charles, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni at a Remembrance day memorial service in France yesterday.

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The royal couple were greeted like old friends when they arrived at the Elysee Palace ahead of the Armistice Day commemorations - which this year marked the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War - with the president bending to kiss Camilla on the hand.

The quartet attended a service in Fort Dounaumont in Verdun, north-west France where they stood and remembered those killed at war. As they stood solemnly, Camilla could be clearly seen wearing a red poppy and blue cornflower - the French equivalent of the flower sported as a symbol of memorial on Armistice day.

Charles and Camilla's decision to attend the service in Verdun, an exclusively Franco-German battlefield, has caused controversy with some British veterans.

Brian Churchcroft, a British veteran who fought through France in the Normandy campaign of 1944, said: "It does seem odd that a battle which was nothing to do with the British is the focal point of commemorations."

"Members of the royal family would certainly have been better off attending our own battlefields."

A source close to the organizers said: "The kind of dignified ceremony which has taken place in Paris for decades would have been perfectly appropriate."