IN HIS book The Temptation of Venice Alain Juppe wrote of his fantasy of living in his native Bordeaux - where he is mayor - and spending weekends in Venice, Lara Marlowe writes.
After announcing yesterday that he will resign as France's Prime Minister on June 1st, Mr Juppe (51) may at last get the chance to lead the idyllic life he has dreamed of, with his young second wife Isabelle and their infant daughter Clara.
As they filed out of the Rally for the Republic (RPR) headquarters after Mr Juppe's farewell address, his government ministers wore the long faces of defeat.
Mr Juppe, considered a brilliant technocrat, had failed in his mission to reform the French economy. His colleagues paid homage to his courage, as if he were a general riding off the battlefield.
The military analogy was repeated in news commentary last night. The outgoing Prime Minister was "tough under fire". When a scandal involving his low rent Saint Germain des Pres apartment broke shortly after he came to office, Mr Juppe said he was "keeping his boots on".
Even yesterday, when his defeat was obvious, Mr Juppe said he would lead the electoral campaign until Sunday. He loyally praised Mr Chirac - the man who had just sacked him - as "the incarnation of renewal".
Mr Juppe has been close to Mr Chirac since he worked for him as a speechwriter in 1976. Both men attended the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), the elite civil service institute which has come under fire in the election campaign.
Mr Juppe earned the nickname "Amstrad" because of his computer like brain. He carried a small notebook in his breast pocket to jot down details. That little black book was the terror of his aides at the Matignon palace.
As foreign minister from 1993 to 1995, Mr Juppe won praise for guiding France through the Bosnian crisis. His appointment as Prime Minister in May 1995 was well received. His public relations soured six months later, though, when Mr Chirac went on television to tell the French they would have to "put the house in order".
The Prime Minister's "Juppe Plan" was meant to reduce the social security deficit. But his attack on French acquis, or acquired rights such as early retirement for civil servants, ignited more than a month of social unrest. His popularity - and public confidence - never recovered.
In 1995, Mr Juppe continued to lead the presidential campaign even when it looked as though Mr Chirac had lost. For the past 20 months, the President resisted pressure to fire Mr Juppe. But Sunday's election results finally got the better of Mr Chirac's determination to keep his faithful soldier with him.