British royals sprinkle star power on a grateful French town with up-and-down ties to royalty

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — As they do every day at noon, the town hall bells played a cheeky little tune about a king who put his pants on back to front. Perhaps a good thing then, for French-British friendship and all of that, that King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived a little too late to hear it.

The British royal couple swept into Saint-Denis just after its midday chimes, coming to sprinkle a little of their star power on the town north of Paris that drank up the attention on Thursday.

After all, it's not every day that VIP visitors venture out here — one of the poorest and toughest parts of the Paris region. Residents were thrilled, welcoming the royals as a boost for the town with a reputation for crime, deep pockets of economic hardship, and where many are deprived of the wealth and opportunities that nearby Paris enjoys.

“When people speak of Saint-Denis, they say, ‘Oh ! Don’t go!,'" said Yannick Caillet, an assistant mayor. “We want to de-stigmatize the town.”