Angela Merkel tried repeatedly to convince a 101-year-old Frenchwoman this weekend that she was not “Madame Macron.”
The German chancellor was being hosted by French president Emmanuel Macron in the small northern French town of Rethodes, where they were inaugurating a plaque to commemorate the end of World War I.
“Monsieur Macron. It’s not possible. A little old woman like me shaking hands with the president of the republic. That’s fantastic,” the woman told Macron at the ceremony, surrounded by photographers.
Turning to Merkel, she declared confidently: “You are Madame Macron.”
“Ich bin die Kanzlerin von Deutschland,” Merkel said.
When the woman looked bewildered, Merkel tried again in German, and then in French: “Je suis la chancelière Allemagne.”
The woman may or not have understood, but exclaimed anyway, “C’est fantastique!”
Watch the exchange here.