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The nine-month loan is backed by the French government in an agreement finalised between Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last year. The museum in Bayeux, Normandy, where it has been exhibited since 1983, is closed for renovation.
At the time the loan was announced, former chancellor George Osborne, chair of the British Museum Trustees, said: "Once in a generation there's a British Museum exhibition that eclipses all others. Think in previous ages of Tutankhamun and the Terracotta Warriors. The Bayeux Tapestry will be THE blockbuster show of our generation. I know it will capture the imagination of an entire nation."
In return, the British Museum is loaning treasures including from the Sutton Hoo hoard as well as the Lewis chess pieces, made from walrus ivory in the 12th Century.
The excitement about the tapestry going on display saw the British Museum sell a record 100,000 tickets on the first day of sales. The work will be displayed flat - a requirement of the loan. A mezzanine will allow visitors to see the work in its entirety as they walk into the gallery - for the first time in history.
But before that come weeks of painstaking examination of the work following its journey.