TheDailySnitcher

J.K. Rowling was presented with the French Legion of Honor (Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur) by President Nicolas Sarkozy this evening. She was given the title of Knight during a ceremony earlier today at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Pics can be seen here!

Thanks, SS!

UPDATE: Thanks to UHP for letting us know more on President Sarkozy explaining his reason behind giving Jo the honor:Â

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“Harry Potter has a proven educational virtue and, thanks to this saga being internationally recognized, you contributed to give again a taste with the young people with reading but also with writing. With you, they understand that reading is not a punishment but a source of pleasure.”

Nicolas Sarkozy described J.K. Rowling as a “woman impassioned by her trade” and “a woman with the exceptional talent.” He also underlined the “initiatory universe” that she created, “which makes it possible to the reader to decipher the world to be built” and which “one does not underline it enough, is before any carrier of values. For all that you brought to youth in general, and to the French children in particular, you deserve amply that the French Republic honours you this evening.”

And from JKR:

My great-grandfather was French, and was decorated with the Legion of honor in 1924 for [his] courage at the time of the battle of Verdun.” J.K. Rowling was also [sorry] to have chosen a “French name with (its) character malefic,” Voldemort. “I can ensure you that no feeling anti-French is at the origin of this choice,” she pled, “but I needed at the same time a name which evokes the capacity and exoticism.”

UPDATE #2: The entire ceremony can be viewed (in French) below, courtesy of UHP.Â

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Raadhika