The French government is to open a new cultural and diplomatic base in the heart of Edinburgh, reinvigorating one of Scotland’s oldest and strongest foreign alliances. Many Scots will see echoes of the medieval Auld Alliance, when France was Scotland’s closest ally. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is in talks about being one of its new tenants, as is a visual arts body and a contemporary orchestra. Julian Goodare, a reader in Scottish history at the University of Edinburgh, said the Auld Alliance was “a political and military alliance. The reason the Scots and the French cooperated is they both hated the English, and the English hated them.”

Source: The Guardian November 28, 2017 16:18 UTC