LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, also known as the world’s richest person, and his daughter Delphine Arnault, CEO of LVMH brand Christian Dior Couture, were among the nearly 60 corporate leaders invited.

Earlier on Monday, Macron offered Xi two bottles of Cognac – a Hennessy XO and a prized Louis XIII by Remy Martin – along with rare volumes by Victor Hugo, the first French-Chinese dictionary and a sculpted glass vase from the town of Amboise.

Xi’s gifts to the French president included French-language books published in China as well as a painting.

At the start of the dinner, Xi told the assembled French and Chinese guests that the two countries are “special friends”, who have a “special relationship among world powers”.

“As important representatives of Eastern and Western civilisations, China and France have always appreciated and attracted each other. The ideas of Confucius profoundly influenced Voltaire and others, and provided inspiration for the French Enlightenment,” he said.

Xi also called for the two countries to join efforts to tackle growing global challenges from the Ukraine war, the chaos in the Middle East, a slowing global economy and to strengthen communication and coordination on “major international issues”.

Observers have long looked to state dinners for clues to help understand the relationships between countries and their leaders.

In 2019, Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron honoured Xi and Peng with a state dinner at the Élysée Palace attended by more than 200 guests from the fields of politics, business and culture.

Gong, the Chinese actress, was seated across from the French first lady, who sat next to Xi.

The 2019 dinner’s menu was not made public, but according to Le Figaro newspaper, four chefs under then Élysée chef Guillaume Gomez took part in the preparation, and at least four kinds of cheese were served – Munster, Roquefort, Camembert and a Comté.

Christelle Lorho, one of the country’s top cheese experts, told the newspaper that the decision was to represent “all of France!”.

Before the more formal state dinner at the Élysée, the Macrons threw a small welcome party for Xi and Peng at Villa Kerylos, an ancient Greek revival style house on the shores of the Mediterranean near the city of Nice, Xi’s first stop on that trip.

According to Le Figaro, the two couples enjoyed Mediterranean cuisine prepared by local chef Christophe Bacquie.

The menu included crab with sour cream and curd, favouille soup, asparagus from a local farm, sabayon with olive oil and lemon, and veal from the Limousin region in south-central France.

Wine was also served during the meal, including Pol Roger champagne, Petrus 2002 and a 2011 Joseph Drouhin Marquis de Laguiche Montrachet Grand Cru.

It was not Xi’s first time being hosted in a private dinner by a French leader.

During Xi’s first visit to France as Chinese president in 2014, then French leader Francois Hollande rolled out an 18-course private dinner designed by celebrity chef Alain Ducasse at the Palace of Versailles.

According to a menu leaked to the media, Xi was served frog legs with sorrel sauce, guinea fowl pie, crayfish ravioli, turbot with black truffles, lobster and lamb.

According to news portal thelocal.fr, the meal went on for more than two hours and included glasses of the country’s finest wine and champagne.

Before the dinner, Hollande also invited Xi and Peng, a Chinese folk singer, to a private concert at the Royal Opera featuring traditional and contemporary Chinese music and famous French arias.

Gift exchanges are also a part of the diplomatic protocol. In 2019, Macron presented Xi with a 1688 copy of An Introduction of The Analects of Confucius, which Xi promised to keep in China’s national library, according to state broadcaster CGTN.

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The details of state dinners and visits are not just a display of goodwill and hospitality but often have cultural or historical importance.

In 2014, when diplomats in Beijing and Paris were preparing for Xi’s visit, the Élysée Palace repeatedly stressed that no white bouquets would be displayed at the state dinner because the colour is associated with death and grief in Asian cultures.

Additional reporting by Finbarr Bermingham and Robert Delaney.