Doña Letizia: “We all have an age”

The long-awaited first image of the entire Royal Family in Mallorca took place this Monday in Valldemossa. And far from disappointing, it surprised for good. Close and communicative, the King and Queen and their daughters arrived at half past seven in the afternoon in this town in the Majorcan Tramontana mountains, famous for its delicious cocas (sweet potato buns) and for the imposing charterhouse that overlooks a spectacular valley full of vegetation that gave shelter in the winter of 1838 to the composer Frederic Chopin and his sentimental partner, the writer George Sand.

“It’s hot, huh?” The Queen commented when she saw that the journalist Mariángel Alcázar fanned herself. “No, it’s just that I’m old,” replied the informant. “We all have an age,” replied Doña Letizia just before adding: “Well, not everyone, you Angie, how old are you?” To which Angie Calero, editor of ABC replied: “Thirty-one.” Especially affectionate, the Queen continued to greet her former professional colleagues while the King received congratulations for finishing second on the first day of the regatta. “Second, for the moment,” she pointed out, implying that he aspires to win.

Doña Letizia wore a full skirt with a high waist in ‘llengües’ fabric designed exclusively for her by the Mallorcan designer Pablo Erroz. Leonor, with high wedges and an Ibizan-type dress, and Sofía, with a mini pink dress, toured with Don Felipe the grounds of what was the Real Cartuja and residence of King Sancho I of Mallorca in the 15th century. And they visited the rooms where they stayed in the 19th century Chopin and Sand, whose walls display original manuscripts, drawings, letters and scores.

Rubén Darío, Unamuno and Azorín also spent brief periods in the charterhouse, but today its main tourist attraction is cell number 4, which still preserves the Pleyel piano that Chopin had brought from Paris and with which he composed, among other pieces, a Polonaise and various Preludes, while Aurore Dupin, under the male pseudonym of George Sand, wrote ‘A winter in Mallorca’.

Leaving Chopin’s cell, the Queen greeted the journalists again, a moment that Mariángel Alcázar took advantage of to show him a photo in which the informant appears holding an eight-month-old Leonor in her arms. The Queen liked the image so much that she decided to organize another similar one, but 16 years later. Leonor hugged the journalist and the Queen immortalized them with amusement.

The royal agenda had begun this Monday in Palma shortly after eleven in the morning, with the arrival of Felipe VI at the Club Náutico, at the wheel of a matte gray Cupra. Very relaxed, the monarch greeted the press with a cheerful ‘Good morning’, and spoke briefly with the club’s president, Emerico Fuster. Once inside, he received the commemorative book for the 40th edition of the Copa del Rey Mapfre de Vela and chatted with the author, Suso Pérez, before heading to the pontoons to board the Aifos 500.

During the journey, the team responsible for the organization of the regatta wanted to dedicate a welcome corridor to the monarch and there were applause and greetings that he answered with a “thank you for everyone’s support.” The good humor that Felipe was wasting this Monday gave rise to comments and anecdotes, such as when, already on board the Aifos, he decided to slip by surprise into the selfie that two of the crew members of his ship were taking. The visit to Valldemossa ended with a walk of the King and his daughters through the main street of Valldemossa, flanked by dozens of onlookers who received them with applause (and some isolated whistles). Eager to shake hands and not in a hurry to leave, it could be said that this Monday the Royal Family approved a master’s degree in closeness and desire to please.