French President Emmanuel Macron spent nearly €475,000 (£400,100) on a lavish dinner for King Charles III and Queen Camilla last year, blowing a hole in his annual budget in the process, the country’s top audit court has reported, Paralel.Az reports citing Independent.

Mr Macron’s office racked up a multi-million euro budget overspill last year as it pulled out the stops on a lavish lobster dinner for Britain’s King Charles and other state banquets, including Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

Mr Macron treated the King and his wife Queen Camilla last September to blue lobster, Bresse French poultry with mushroom gratin, and a selection of French and English cheeses during the state dinner in the famed Hall of Mirrors of the 17th century Versailles Palace.

That set the French state back €474,851, including €166,193 on catering and €42,515 on drinks.

At the dinner – which was also attended by the likes of Hugh Grant, Mick Jagger and Arsene Wenger – King Charles told Mr Macron that “your generosity of spirit brings to mind how my family and I were so greatly moved by the tributes paid in France to my mother, the late queen”.