On November 17 1869, Empress Eugenie along with many sovereigns attended at the opening of the Suez Canal. “The boats, in a long procession, slowly moved in the direction of the South. The fleet was led by The Eagle. “A real ‘cruising of kings’.
A long stopover was planned at Ismailia, where a thousand tents had been erected for feasts which certainly had nothing oriental about them. After the banquet and te fireworks followed a grand ball opened by the Empress.
At the end of this banquet, whose chroniclers tell us that it would have cost two million francs at the time, Ferdinand de Lesseps received from the hands of the Empress (his cousin) the Grand Cross insignia of the French Legion an honor to which the khedive joined those of Osmanié.