He sat alone on the Diana Bench. The 37th VVIP since January 2006 to visit the Taj Mahal, French President Nicolas Sarkozy ended his hour-long sojourn with the monument of love with a cryptic note in the visitors’ book: “Inoubliable. A bientot” (Unforgettable. See you soon).

Accompanied by a large delegation and dogged by rumours about girlfriend Carla Bruni joining him, Sarkozy kept his date with the Taj Mahal on Saturday afternoon. Spending more than the 30 minutes listed in his programme, he even posed for the mandatory photo op on the bench, all the while “looking a bit upset”.

“He was alone,” says guide Kamlesh Dwivedi, one of the two French-speaking guides who accompanied Sarkozy inside the Taj Mahal. “I thought he was a bit upset and didn’t ask too many questions as he went around the monument.”

“He was in a hurry and was more keen to see than listen to us,” says Lalit Kumar Chawla, the second guide. “He was not in a good mood. All he asked about was a good book on the Taj and we recommended some ASI publications.” Saying it was “more beautiful than he had imagined”, Chawla says Sarkozy insisted on going round the monument and stood gazing at the river and Sikandara Fort. “He looked visibly impressed. Members of his delegation were also giving him details about the structure. We tried telling him about the architecture.”

The sojourn lasted for around 40 minutes before the battery-operated buses brought the delegation back to Shilpgram. Earlier in the day, Rule 5 of the Ancient Monuments, Archaeological Sites and Remains Rules, 1959 was imposed and the weekend crowd at the Taj Mahal was cleared at 12.40 p.m. Shops along the road leading to the monument were closed and roads cleared for the 22-vehicle cavalcade that arrived at the Shilpagram at 2 p.m.

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