PARIS -- Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and other royalty are on a three-day state visit to France to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy during WWII.

On a rare foreign trip, the 88-year-old queen arrived in Paris on Thursday via the under-Channel train from England. She laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe before heading to a meeting with French President Francois Hollande.

She travels Friday with her husband Prince Phillip to Normandy to commemorate the landings of British and other Allied soldiers on June 6, 1944. The invasion helped pave the way for victory against the Nazis in World War II.

Prince Charles, his wife Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate will also be in Normandy marking the anniversary.