SO JUST how did Nicolas Sarkozy win the heart of Carla Bruni? With flowers, apparently – but not in bunches; rather it was the president’s botanical brilliance that dazzled her during a walk in the Élysée Palace gardens.
In an interview with BBC World Service radio, France’s first lady said she was spellbound when Mr Sarkozy, better known for edgy energy rather than matinee idol good looks, started to list off flowers by Latin name during a courtship promenade.
“He was giving me all these details about tulips and roses and I said to myself: ‘My God, I must marry this man, he’s the president, and he knows everything about flowers as well. This is incredible’,” Ms Bruni-Sarkozy said.
Mr Sarkozy married the singer and former supermodel in 2008, a few months after divorcing his previous wife.
Ms Bruni-Sarkozy is now pregnant but less ready to wax lyrical about the couple’s soon-to-be-born child.
“There isn’t much to say. So many women are expecting a child, it’s so uninteresting for French people,” she said.
The couple first met in 2007 at a dinner hosted by a mutual friend, just months after his election victory and the departure of his former wife, Cecilia.
The president’s wife, who in the past has been romantically involved with the likes of Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, said she liked to lead a quiet life in the slower moments her husband can set aside from his official duties, but that he too had added a bit of rock and roll to her existence.
“Being able to change your life from one day to another, being able to learn new things at the age of 40 – that’s really rock and roll.
“Most people wouldn’t go for this sort of change,” the 43-year-old Ms Bruni-Sarkozy said. – (Reuters)