David Cameron Takes French President François Hollande Down The Pub

    The Prime Minister took his French opposite number to a gastropub in his constituency.

    Jim Waterson
    by Jim Waterson

    BuzzFeed News Reporter, UK

    If you go down to the Oxfordshire pub today... you might find a couple of middle aged men holding up the bar.

    Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/Press Association Images

    That'll be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the French President.

    Hollande flew into RAF Brize Norton – an airbase in David Cameron's constituency – for a one day summit designed to show the strength of military ties between the two nations.

    But in a press conference beside a giant model aircraft, Hollande refused to answer a question from The Telegraph's Christopher Hope about whether he had made France an "international joke" due to his alleged affair with activist.

    Cameron made up for this by taking Hollande to his favourite pub for a man-to-man chat.

    Pool / Reuters

    But this isn't any old pub: it's a a seriously upmarket gastropub that calls itself a "boutique Cotswolds Inn".

    Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/Press Association Images / Via theswanswinbrook.co.uk

    The Swan Inn at Swinbrook is run by Archie Orr-Ewing – himself the heir to a baronetcy and the grandson of a former Conservative government minister – and is owned by the aristocratic Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, the last surviving Mitford sister.

    Main courses start at £14.

    It's so upmarket that Downton Abbey filmed there.

    Cameron and Hollande sat down for a chat in the same location that Lady Sybil eloped to with her family chauffeur.

    Cheers!

    Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/Press Association Images

    Not that you'll see the pair having a pint of Hook Norton Best.

    norman smith @BBCNormanS

    BREAKING......Anglo French relations hit new low as PM and President Hollande opt not to share a pint in pub #wastedphotoop

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