New Delhi:
The last time Nicolas Sarkozy was in India, Carla Bruni, then his girl friend ,stayed away. It was because protocol officers could not figure out her exact status on the state visit. Now, however there a no such issues, and Carla Bruni and the French President finally visited the Taj Mahal, something that they have been meaning to do for a while.
Carla Bruni is an intriguing person - a singer, model and song-writer - someone who has created quite the international storm over the years, never failing to add a dash of glamour to her husbands state visits.
Fashion watchers, interested in a comparison with Michelle Obama, will watch closely what the Frech first lady wears on this visit to India.
Carla Bruni Sarkozy often looks demure and elegant by her husband's side, but she is hardly the run-of-the mill first lady. She is known to have said that she gets easily "bored with monogamy" and that "love lasts a long time, but burning desire lasts only two to three weeks"
Carla Bruni said her last album "As if nothing happened..." was inspired by her new life and her feelings for her husband. But lyrics such as "I am a child, despite my 40 years, despite my 30 lovers..." created quite a stir. It didn't do as well as her first album, and the proceeds went to a fund that supports social projects. After her brother died of AIDS in 2006, Carla Bruni has been working with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.
She started out as an art and architecture student, but began working as a model with a Paris-based agency when she was just 19. Three years later, she was a top model and in the 1990s she was one of the big favourites for magazine covers, and one of the most highly paid models in the industry.
The French first lady has dabbled in some acting too. She recently acted in Woody Allen's 'Midnight in Paris'.
The presidential couple live in Bruni's luxury apartment in Paris and not in the Elysée Palace. They say they don't mix work and private life.