Patronage
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing was a passionate European. As President of France during Walter Scheel’s term as President of West Germany he initiated the first European summits that were the predecessors of the European Council, supported the expansion of the powers of the European Parliament and, later, assumed the Presidency of the Convention on the Future of Europe.
The cultural importance attributed by Giscard d’Estaing to France’s culinary heritage was underlined by his elevation of Paul Bocuse to the rank of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur – an event commemorated to this day by Bocuse’s most famous creation: “Soupe aux Truffes Noires V.G.E.”