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Carla Wows Brits
Less than one year ago, two women were giving Nicolas Sarkozy no end of grief. His troublesome wife Cécilia was intent on making his home life a misery, while his Presidential opponent Ségolène Royal had determined, with the aid of the media, to depict Sarkozy as a dangerous extremist who would wreck centuries of French tradition.
Fast forward a year: Ségo is still ranting from the sidelines to an ever-diminishing audience, while Cécilia has married the love of her life Richard Attias in New York. But today Sarko had two very different women at his side. To his left, his new wife Carla Bruni, knocking them dead in a grey outfit complete with what the papers are describing as "a Jackie Kennedy-style costume and hat" (WE TOLD YOU SO). Indeed, the Mail reckons it echoes an outfit worn by Jackie Kennedy on a 1962 visit to London.
On his right, the Queen of England, who has seen Presidents of all varieties come and go in the course of her glorious reign but rarely allows her government to put on the sort of full-throttle "this one goes up to eleven" pomp that Sarkozy enjoyed today. Queen Elizabeth II has even awarded Sarkozy the title of Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath - a recent tradition for French Presidents, putting him up there with greats like Ronald Reagan and Lech Walesa (but also with, er, Robert Mugabe...)
From two sourpusses to a glamour puss and the Queen in the space of a year. No wonder Sarkozy's grinning like the cat who got the cream.
More on Carla's costume: Our fashion correspondent tells us that the grey outfit is supposed to embody the entente cordiale between Britain and France. It is classically-styled Christian Dior, designed by Paris-based-Brit John Galliano. She was wearing flat shoes, as usual: She's five nine, her husband is three or four inches shorter. In a relationship like that, a woman has to learn politics fast.
