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French Made
The Independent's excellent John Lichfield has been doing some snooping into Ségolène Royal's past, and found, well, if not dirt at least something interesting: Back in the late sixties, the French presidential contender worked for a while as an au pair in Dublin.
Lichfield has tracked down some of the children who remember the strong-willed but "warm hearted and patient" Marie-Ségolène from her days as an exchange student maid. Interestingly, he notes, Royal was thought to be very glam in those days - one student thought she looked like Sofia Loren. Quite a contrast to the toothy, geeky MP she became prior to her recent makeover. Lichfield reckons that she may have had to play down her natural sense of style to be taken seriously in France's macho political scene.
Maybe the parallels with Hillary Clinton work, but then again Royal served under the notorious Francois Mitterand, who didn't exactly surround himself with frumps. He used the French secret service to stalk actress Carole Bouquet, for goodness sake. Maybe the frumpy mid-eighties look was designed to fight off the attentions of the ageing lothario?
