Up to 1,600 French sailors are expected to enjoy a run ashore while their ship anchors in the Solent on a visit to mark the centenary of Entente Cordiale.

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle – at 40,000 tons she is roughly twice the size of the British Invincible-class aircraft carriers – is the French Navy’s premier ship, and her visit to the UK emphasises the importance with which the 100-year-old friendship between the two nations on either side of the Channel is viewed.

Before the carrier anchored off Stokes Bay in Gosport at 8.30am yesterday, she fired a 21-gun salute, which was returned from ashore by a saluting gun at Fort Blockhouse.

One of the highlights of the ship’s visit will be a flypast tomorrow by the Patrouille de France, the French equivalent of the Red Arrows, over the Solent at around 6.30pm, and later that evening around 600 invited guests will be ferried to the carrier by boat for a cocktail party.

A band of 65 musicians from the French Army is being flown in specially to play for the guests at the party and as they wait for their boats to return ashore. The band is also expected to play at a public location in Portsmouth.

The Charles de Gaulle, commanded by Capt Xavier Magne, was commissioned in May 2001, and can carry a mixed air group of up to 40 aircraft, including Super Etendard strike fighters, E2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft, Rafale F1 fighters and a combination of AS 565 Panther, AS 322 Cougar and Super Frelon helicopters, as well as Dauphin search and rescue helicopters.

Besides her air group the 261m ship is armed with surface to air and anti-missile missiles.

The carrier has recently been carrying out exercises in the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans, and among her escort group has been Royal Navy destroyer HMS Gloucester.