Dame Ellen MacArthur receives Légion d’Honneur - President Sarkozy’s speech

State visit to the United Kingdom – Presentation of the insignia of the Légion d’Honneur to Dame Ellen MacArthur – Speech by M. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Republic

Greenwich, 27 March 2008

Chère Ellen MacArthur,

I am especially happy to meet you in this mythical place of Greenwich, landmark of time and space for all who sail the oceans, and present you with the highest French distinction.

You are, Dame Ellen, an exceptional person. You are courageous, you are tenacious, you have talent, and you are a woman admired on both sides of the Channel. The deep affection the French and British feel for you is one of the raw emotions uniting our two peoples.

Your element is the sea, the true link between France and the United Kingdom. A geographical one, a historical one with the old rivalry between the Royal Navy and the Marine française. But going beyond this, it’s clearly the passionate link with the sea which the French and British share that we are celebrating today, as demonstrates the presence among our guests of one of our most famous yachtswomen, Maud Fontenoy, whom I want to congratulate for the happy event she is expecting.

It’s not only the long list of your feats which explains your place in our hearts. It’s also your generosity.

It’s hard to find a place in the United Kingdom further away from the sea than the one where you were born.

David King, one of your first teachers, was to say to your parents, "I don’t know where your daughter is going, but wherever it is, she’ll go a long way on the water".

I believe that today you have covered over 250,000 nautical miles at sea. And you have never contemplated anything but offshore racing.

At 19, you are named Young Sailor of the Year in the United Kingdom and you sail solo round Britain on your tiny boat.

We start to see a lot of you, and get to know you.

The reward comes when at last you experience the open sea, first of all in a crew, then, aged 21, single-handed in the Mini-Transat.

It is your life, in the solitude of the vastness of the ocean. Your exceptional reading of the elements, your respect for the sea and its rules, your relationship with your boats.

You are an exceptional sailor.

And we well know, it takes a whole team to fit out a 50- or 60-foot boat capable of winning a major race.

And you have the best team around you.

Since Sir Francis Chichester and Eric Tabarly, you have joined the long list of women and men who have had the courage to cross the oceans.

We shared your emotion on the Route du Rhum in 1998 and in 2002, on the Transat Europe. And – as you seemed to consider the Atlantic a bit small – we also followed your progress as you sailed towards the glacial dangers of the great south, around the world for the Vendée Globe.

And in February 2005, you beat the round the world solo record in a 75-foot trimaran. It’s a huge feat.

We reeled with you as your boat pitched, trembled with you, felt the pain of your injuries, and shared your tears of exhaustion and perhaps, for a moment, we also joined in your happiness.

Dame Ellen, France wants to honour you with her highest distinction and for a reason: you have pushed back the limits of the possible and the fact that it’s a woman who is pushing back the limits of the possible is magnificent. Because the place of women still has to be built in our societies and the fact that you are doing so in a sport, reputedly a man’s sport – with a few notable exceptions – that you are doing so alone, in a reputedly team sport, and that you are doing it in your own way, modestly, free-spiritedly, determinedly, is a fine lesson of life.

And France is very happy to reward you and to recognize you and, perhaps, you will accept this reward which is owed to you also being shared with the whole world of seafarers, to all those sailors risking their lives, some of whom losing them, to all those who have been your friends and those you don’t know.

And believe me, chère Dame Ellen, for me it’s an honour to present you with this award./.