The French maneuvers of 1901 were autumn maneuvers of the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

and

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...

, beginning with naval maneuvers at

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France. and ending with a military review at

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...

on 21 September. They were attended by emperor

Nicholas II of Russia Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...

and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna upon the invitation of French president

Émile Loubet Émile François Loubet (; 30 December 183820 December 1929) was the 45th Prime Minister of France from February to December 1892 and later President of France from 1899 to 1906. Trained in law, he became mayor of Montélimar, where he was note ...

. The imperial guests arrived at Dunkirk on the ''

Standart Standart may refer to: * an alternative translation of Штандартъ, the Russian name of the ship ''Shtandart'' * Standart (Heraldic flag), the Russian Regimental colors * ''Shtandart'' (frigate, 1703), a Russian sailing frigate construc ...

'' on 18 September from Danzig, where Nicholas II had met with German emperor

Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Empir ...

. According to

Charles Oman Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman, (12 January 1860 – 23 June 1946) was a British Military history, military historian. His reconstructions of medieval battles from the fragmentary and distorted accounts left by chroniclers were pioneering. ...

The whole business was designed so much as a military demonstration that the Czar did not even pass through
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
or display himself there, but went straight from Dunkirk to Reims, avoiding the capital, and making the old royal and imperial palace of Compiegne his main halting-place.

As explained by S. S. Oldenburg,

The tone of Franco-Russian relations was changed somewhat under the new (radical) regime: Nicholas expressed no desire to visit Paris, and the French government did not press him. ''
Revue des deux Mondes The ''Revue des deux Mondes'' (, ''Review of the Two Worlds'') is a monthly French-language literary, cultural and current affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829. According to its website, "it is today the place for debates a ...
'' observed that "this second visit of the Russian tsarist couple admittedly did not inspire the same broad popular enthusiasm as the first."

References

{{reflist History of Dunkirk 1901 in France Nicholas II of Russia Reims