London and Paris are the "yin and yang "of Europe, claimed Boris Johnson on Thursday during a trip to the French capital in which he declared: "Je Suis Charlie," reports The Telegraph.
The Mayor of London and his Parisian counterpart, Anne Hidalgo, sought to quell a recent row over which was the better city, saying that healthy rivalry between the two capitals was "stimulating".
There had been no love lost between "Boris" and Paris's Socialist mayor after a spat over which city was the world's top tourist destination.
During her electoral campaign, Miss Hidalgo told a "boastful" Mayor of London that the French capital was far safer, created more start-ups and was more attractive for families. He retorted that London was "the best city on the planet".
In his first visit to Miss Hidalgo since she took office, the ambience was apparently more of "entente cordiale".
"Welcome Boris," said the Paris mayor, using up all her English as she launched a five-month "tandem" of cultural exchanges between the two cities in theatre, art and music.
It starts with a David Bowie exhibition in Paris and a Juliette Binoche play in London's Barbican.
"Paris and London seen from Shanghai are each other's suburb," she went on.
"Oui oui, le yin et le yang," chimed in Boris, speaking in French, which he apologetically called "barbarique".