As members of the International Olympic Committee attended a banquet on February 18th night, Buckingham Palace abandoned tradition to present each with a menu card written not in French, but English.

　　For as long as anyone can remember menus at the Queen's official banquets have been written in French, generally regarded as the international language of cuisine.

　　But, as three generations of the Royal Family and the Prime Minister joined sporting stars and dignitaries in the State Dining Room alongside the IOC's Evaluation Commission, there, in plain English, were the menus.

　　With Paris one of four cities vying for the 2012 games alongside London, there were no doubts as to where the Queen's sentiments lay. She even banned French wines from the menu, replacing pre-prandial champagne with Nyetimber 1995, an English sparkling wine, and choosing Commonwealth wines from Australia and New Zealand to accompany the meal.