The lunch and talks at the Elysee Palace are expected to take in Syria and EU-urkey relations.

The visit to France will be Erdoğan’s first since the botched July 2015 putsch and one of only a handful to Europe since the attempted army takeover.

In an interview with France’s LCI television on Thursday, he said he had got off to a “very good start” with France’s new leader.

But in an interview with Le Point magazine in August, Macron listed “having to talk to Erdoğan every 10 days” as one of the drawbacks.