A magnificent ceremony was held last night in Paris to commemorate the re-opening of Notre-Dame Cathedral after years of restoration works. Many world leaders attended and, as usual, this gave the opportunity for political networking.

The American delegation was rather strange – the First Lady Jill Biden and her daughter Ashley were in attendance but the 46th President himself was not. The 45th & 47th President Donald Trump did attend however. He was without family for the occasion, making the event feel like the setup for a very strange episode of Wife Swap.

Trump is in the strange position of being a past and future but not current head of state, though it would be hard to tell from his interactions on this visit and his coverage in international press more generally you could be forgiven for assuming that Joe Biden had already long since left the stage. A similar phenomenon occurs during every post-electoral transition period in the United States, but the striking difference in personalities between incoming and outgoing leaders this time around leaves the latter seeming an even lamer duck than usual.

I am not entirely sure which order of precedence was being followed for this event – hosted by the Catholic Church in France rather than the French government – Mr Trump was seated directly beside M. Macron while Dr Biden was two spaces further along. Other national representatives filled the next section, including the President of Ukraine.

Macron, Trump and Zilensky had a much-covered trilateral meeting before the service. The President Re-elect then went to the British ambassador’s residence for a bilateral meeting with the Prince of Wales. The press reel from their discussion does not include much of the dialogue itself, but does include the amusing moment when the two men sit in awkward silence while waiting for the film crew to shamble in after them – complete with camera wobble and heavy footfall.

It has been difficult to find free photographs of the event – neither the British nor American governments appear to have taken any, Wikimedia Commons currently has eighteen pictures licensed by the Italian President’s office and the Ukrainian President’s licensed a further eight. I hope more will emerge in time to come.