Sarkozy saga now tres francais for even France

France’s rumour de jour is that Nicolas Sarkozy, the nation’s President and first bachelor, has done just what he said he would do if he decided to marry his former-supermodel girlfriend, Carla Bruni: He would keep it a secret.

“There are strong chances you will learn of it once it’s done,” Sarkozy told 600 reporters at a news conference a week ago after acknowledging that he had gotten “serious” with his girlfriend of two months.

Now, a regional newspaper, L’est Republican, is reporting that the couple got married in a “small, private ceremony” at the Elysee Palace on Thursday. The President’s staff had no comment, and the report, based on a source close to “a witness who attended the ceremony,” contained no details.

“The details — they’re part of the President’s private life,” said L’est Republican reporter Laid Sammari, adding, “I’m not interested in whether she wore a white dress and pink panties. That’s private. What’s not private is to know if the President is married. Will he have a First Lady with him when he goes to India at the end of the month.”

But the notion that any part of the life of the man who has been dubbed “le President bling-bling” is private seems increasingly comical as the media and public pore over details of the divorce, over opinions by world leaders on his new relationship, and, oh, yes, over a contretemps with his top executive over how they’re running the country.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Tuesday dispelled rumours that he resented Sarkozy for hogging the limelight and that they weren’t getting along. But Fillon did it in a parody of the questions and answers about Sarkozy’s romantic entanglements that are dominating French civic life these days.

“How does the executive couple work?” Fillon asked himself. “Very well,” he answered himself. “Are you a happy Prime Minister?” he continued. “Yes, I am... when I’m with you.”

Just about everyone else is chatting up their relationship with the President of France. Already three books about his 11-year marriage to his ex- have been published. Cecilia by journalist Anna Bitton came out this week and is already a bestseller. In it, the former first lady is quoted as describing Sarkozy as “out of control” since the divorce and leaping “on girls whose names he can’t even remember”.

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