Chinese leader Xi Jinping visits the French Pyrenees in a personal gesture by Macron

France`s President Emmanuel Macron (L) with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Pic/AFP

France's president hosted China's leader at a remote mountain pass in the Pyrenees on Tuesday for private meetings after a high-stakes state visit in Paris dominated by trade disputes and Russia's war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron made a point of inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Tourmalet Pass near the Spanish border, where Macron spent time as a child visiting his grandmother. It is meant to be a reciprocal gesture after Xi took Macron last year to the residence of the governor of Guangdong province, where the Chinese president's father once lived.

Snow coated nearby slopes after new snowfall overnight, and security was tightened around the area. The winding roads up to the pass were blocked by authorities Tuesday for dozens of kilometres. Foggy weather, falling snow and brisk winds obscured the view of the dramatic Tourmalet Pass. Macron and Xi together with their wives, Brigitte Macron and Peng Liyuan visited a mountain restaurant. Before lunch, protected from the elements by umbrellas, they watched a traditional folk dance performance on the terrace. The leaders could be seen eating ham and blueberry pie, among other local specialties.

Macron presented Xi with a yellow Tour de France jersey with the Tourmalet Pass one of the most famous climbs of the race a woollen blanket made in the Pyrenees and a bottle of Armagnac, French broadcaster BFMTV said. The mountain meetings come after a grandiose state visit by Xi on Monday that included a ceremonial welcome at the monument housing Napoleon's tomb and a state dinner at the Elysee Palace with celebrities and magnates. Xi is on a trip to Europe aimed at reinvigorating relations at a time of global tensions. He heads next to Serbia and Hungary. The last day of his visit to France came as authorities were searching the European Parliament office of a prominent German far-right lawmaker in Brussels on Tuesday, Germany's top prosecutor's office said. Maximilian Krah, the Alternative for Germany party's top candidate in the upcoming European Parliament election, has been under scrutiny after an assistant of his was arrested last month on suspicion of spying for China.

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