Queen to gradually hand over charge to Prince Charles?

A French government adviser involved in planning the D-Day commemorations told the newspaper: “We have been told this will probably be the Queen's last official foreign visit.”

Last year, the Prince had represented his mother at the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting in Sri Lanka.  

After 261 official visits overseas in her 62-year reign, the Queen will be joining British veterans of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France this year.  

She will be guest of honour at the international ceremony on Sword Beach, where she will be joined by President Francois Hollande of France, US President Barack Obama and more than a dozen other heads of state.

Most of the British veterans of the largest amphibious invasion in history are in their 90s and only 200 are expected to be in good enough health to attend.

The Queen turns 88 in April and, since suffering a bout of ill-health last spring, has steadily been shifting responsibility to younger generations of the royal family.