Fleur Thomas was appointed to succeed John Marshall as British ambassador to Luxembourg, and welcomed RTL Today to her residence to share her first impressions on the Grand Duchy, her priorities going forward, and try some Luxembourgish Kachkéis.

Having been in Luxembourg for just over two weeks, Thomas is still getting settled at her new home overlooking the Pfaffenthal Valley. Along came diplomat cat Millie, who is yet to make her media debut but is slowly becoming acquainted with the staff. Thomas has visited Luxembourg twice before, once to go to the Christmas market, which she adores, and once at the end of July. “I haven’t had much of an opportunity to get out and about, but what I’ve seen so far I’ve really enjoyed.”

Prior to her appointment, Thomas was Head of Exports, Security, Policy and Operations at the Ministry of Defence, ran her own small business teaching language and business skills to women in the Middle East, and worked as cabin crew for British Airways for seven years. Each career path has helped shape her passions for people, education and travel.

The job in Luxembourg was opened externally (RTL Today covered it here): “It was the first ambassador job I applied for”, she says. Most foreign office jobs have historically not been opened up to the public, but Thomas believes this was an exercise in trying to improve and increase diversity in office, something she is very keen on promoting. Gender equality, race equality and embedding more understanding of race issues through education should be encouraged further, says the ambassador. A fluent French speaker, she is now working hard on her German and Luxembourgish skills.

Once the pandemic is over, the ambassador is looking forward to welcoming the local community to the residence for events, supporting initiatives that foster ties between Luxembourg and the UK, and generally having people around. Back home, her parents still live in Sussex, with her son settled in Dorset  where he raises pheasants. “I hope he’ll come visit often”, she says, expressing how grateful she is for modern technology to stay connected with her family.

The importance of filing residency applications

Thomas urges UK nationals to file their residency applications: “It’s really important that UK nationals here do actually lodge their residency applications here. We believe there’s somewhere around 1,200 people out there who still haven’t applied for their biometric cards, and they’ve only got until the end of June to do that.” Her predecessor John Marshall already urged UK nationals to do the same back in November.

Self-evidently, the pandemic is on the ambassador’s agenda, something she says everyone has sort of become a mini-expert on in the last months. How do the people of Britain view Europe’s rather slow-paced vaccine rollout whereas the UK is storming ahead? “I don’t think the two are comparable. This is such an unprecedented event, and what I think we should be focussing on really is the amazing technology, in the UK, Europe, and across the world, in developing vaccines at all. For me the fact that anyone has a vaccine at this point is quite astonishing. In the UK we’re championing access to vaccines to everyone through the Covax scheme, but it’s only useful as long as everyone gets it.”

Now that the UK has left the European Union, EU students will see a big fee hike with UK universities. For UK students still hoping to study abroad but not being able to make use of the Erasmus programme, the British government has now established the Turing scheme, which Thomas hopes will generate a lot of opportunities for all students, but does not include students from outside the UK wanting to study there.

Kachkéis and bucket list

Over the next four years, Ms Thomas is focussed on Luxembourg, which she says is a “massive honour to be selected as an ambassador for your country.” Are there any other countries she’d like to be posted to? “I wouldn’t like to say which colleague’s jobs I’d like to take in the future, but I’ve spent quite a lot of time in the Middle East. I’m quite fond of places like Kuwait and Oman”, she laughs.

Before leaving, RTL Today presents the ambassador with a Luxembourgish delicacy: Kachkéis, prepared on a slice of bread by her residency’s chef, with whom she likes to cook together, or otherwise share recipes for the days when a busy agenda does not allow for knocking up a meal. “It’s very good”, she exclaims. “It’s rather like a strong melted brie” before giving it her official British stamp of approval.

For more information of filing residency applications, look here.