TARBES, France, May 7 (Reuters) - French President

Emmanuel Macron welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping in the

Pyrenees mountains on Tuesday, for the second day of a trip

during which Xi showed little sign of being ready to offer major

concessions on trade or foreign policy.

Macron, who will greet Xi at the Tarbes-Lourdes Pyrenees

airport at around 11:40 a.m. (0940 GMT), will take him to have

lunch in the mountains dear to him as the birthplace of his

maternal grandmother.

Advisers to the French president described this as breaking

with protocol for a chance for one-on-one direct chats with Xi,

without scores of aide on either side.

One of Macron's main objectives for the visit is trying to

convince Xi to reduce the trade imbalance between the two

regions, with better access for European firms in China and less

subsidies for Chinese exporters.

Macron has a history of trying to establish

outside-of-protocol personal relationships with his

counterparts, even those he strongly disagrees with.

Xi's Pyrenees invite has echoes of then U.S. President

Donald Trump joining Macron in 2017 to watch the Bastille day

parade, or Russian President Vladidmir Putin's 2019 trip to the

French president's Bregancon fortress summer retreat, in

southeast France.

"Emmanuel Macron attempted this narcissistic diplomacy of 'I

flatter the tyrant' with Vladimir Putin for five years, with the

Bregancon fort ... the camaraderie," Raphael Glucksmann, who

leads the French Socialists' European Parliament ticket told RTL

radio.

"And all that ended with what, the invasion of Ukraine and

the threats to our democracies," Glucksmann said.

French and Chinese companies concluded some agreements on

Monday ranging from energy, finance and transport on the

sidelines of Xi's visit, but most were agreements to cooperate

or renewed commitments to work together, and there were no

significant deals.

European hopes of an Airbus plane order to coincide with

Xi's visit appeared to have been disappointed, with the two

sides agreeing only to expand co-operation.

Industry sources say the two sides have been in negotiations

on a new plane order for months.

China has historically signalled large jet orders timed to

coincide with state visits, but the negotiations between Airbus

and China's CASC buying agency are likely to go down to the wire

and are not guaranteed to result in a deal, sources said.

However, French cognac makers rallied on Tuesday as Xi

presented what Macron described as an "open attitude" towards a

trade dispute between the two countries.

A French diplomatic source said China would not impose

taxes, customs duties on French cognac, pending the

investigation. Xi did not comment on this during his many public

statements on Monday.