Article
King Juan Carlos I receives the photographer Jordi Llorens Estapé in a private audience
The meeting took place at La Zarzuela Palace on 8 th October last, at noon and lasted half an hour, time enough so that the photographer from Granollers could deliver a letter to King Juan Carlos I. This letter arrived, via Llorens, from King Tupou IV of Tonga, a country in Western Polynesia, formed by 171 islands, of which only 45 are inhabited, and which the intrepid traveller visited recently. Llorens is very pleased with the attention received from the King and emphasizes the familiar and relaxed tone of a meeting that he will remember, he says, “all my life”.
This is a common story of explorers, the story of a person called Jordi Llorens i Estapé, who is used to travel miles and miles around the world and who knows of the greatness of human relationships. In recent times, he travelled to the Pacific area, specifically to the islands of Samoa, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Tonga—he went to the last one with the aim of discovering new things about this country and meeting the king, Tupou IV. So, he asked to see and experience, first-hand, the national festival that this country celebrates every year to commemorate the King’s birthday on 4th July […].
Once he had been received by the King of Tonga in his royal palace in Nuku’alofa, the latter asked about the photographer’s aims for the trip and during the conversation, the King explained to him that he was a great admirer of Spain, as well as a good friend of King Juan Carlos. [ … ] And that was how the King of Tonga decided to write a letter to the King of Spain, instructing the photographer to deliver it to him personally […].
At the end of the journey, and when he returned again to his home in Granollers, Llorens initiated the relevant contacts which would enable him to hand the letter over to King Juan Carlos in person, the letter which had been given to him by King Tupou IV of Tonga […].
With only a few hours to prepare everything, he was informed that King Juan Carlos had granted him a private audience in his office on 8th October, at noon […].
According to statements made by the photographer from Granollers to Revista del Vallès, “the King’s audience took place in a totally relaxed atmosphere and he showed great interest in the adventures and journeys that I had experienced around the world.”
The King also, explains Llorens, “thanked me for having brought him the letter from the King of Tonga and apologized for the delay in receiving me” […].
Llorens presented the monarch with his book “La vuelta al mundo en 80 lunas” («Around the world in eighty moons»), about which the King said he already knew it […].
It was nearly one o’clock when Llorens put an end to that adventure which he had begun a thousand miles away a few months before, and which turned him, because life is like that sometimes, into a royal postman.
Revista del Vallès
by Paco Monja
