Showing posts with label Élysée Palace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Élysée Palace. Show all posts

Sunday, August 01, 2021

A French Dinner for the Queen - in the Kitchens of the Élysée Palace

Aug 9, 2019 • On the occasion of D-Day commemoration ceremonies, the Queen of England is paying an official state visit in France and attends a banquet as the guest of honor at the official residence of the President of the Republic of France, the Elysée Palace.

This documentary describes the event from the kitchens of power, the true vitrine of French gastronomy which has been on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2010.

We follow the work of the teams of the famous chef Guillaume Gomez, from the conception of the menus to the selection of products with the best French producers as well as the installation of the reception hall. A true challenge for a prestigious guest. | Views on YouTube: 1,735,889


Thursday, October 17, 2013

Secrets of the Elysée Kitchen Disclosed by Head Chef

Bernard Vaussion, Head Chef at the Elysée Palace
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Elysée's head chef steps down after almost 40 years and discloses the culinary secrets of Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande

François Mitterrand preferred seafood, Jacques Chirac snails and sauerkraut, Nicolas Sarkozy took cheese off the menu and followed a draconian diet while François Hollande "eats everything".

After almost 40 years in the kitchens of France's presidential palace, the Elysée's head chef is stepping down at the end of the month and has been sharing tit bits about his illustrious guests before throwing in the apron for good.

Bernard Vaussion can still remember the first time he stepped through the presidential gates in 1974 as a mere assistant chef to find nobody in the vast kitchen in the bowels of the Elysée; the entire cooking staff was attending Georges Pompidou's New Year's address.

"I found myself all alone in this huge room in the middle of saucepans," he told Le Parisien [€].

In two weeks, a culinary page in French political history will be turned when he steps out of those gates for good after catering to the tastes of six French presidents, and a range of leaders from African dictators to the Queen. » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Thursday, October 17, 2013

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Décès du prince héritier saoudien - François Hollande : "La France perd un ami"

LE POINT: Le président de la République a fait part samedi de son "émotion" après la mort de Nayef ben Abdel Aziz.

Le président de la République François Hollande a fait part samedi de son "émotion" après le décès du prince héritier et ministre de l'Intérieur de l'Arabie saoudite, Nayef ben Abdel Aziz, assurant que la France avait "perdu un ami", selon un communiqué de l'Élysée. "L'Arabie saoudite perd un homme d'État qui aura marqué de son empreinte l'essor de ce pays et aura contribué de façon décisive à sa sécurité et à la lutte commune contre le terrorisme", souligne le communiqué. » | Source AFP | samedi 16 juin 2012

Related »

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Will François Hollande Be the President to Rescue France's Economy?

THE GUARDIAN: The socialist candidate with a narrow lead in the race for the French presidency says he has more to offer than just austerity

In a bruising French presidential race increasingly peppered with personal digs and invective, the socialist frontrunner François Hollandehas sometimes taken comfort in his rural constituency of Corrèze in the Limousin. Hollande recently had the most famous crash diet and makeover in French politics. But on the stump in Tulle where he is mayor, the self-styled Mr Normal shakes hands and loiters over indulgent cheese and sausage at the market.

"Here people make a fuss of me, give me ham, sweets … Can you imagine all these magic potions?" he told reporters, likening local produce to a presidential elixir.

If Hollande maintains his narrowing lead in the polls, he would in May become France's first left-wing president since François Mitterrand. When he arrives in London for a campaign visit on Wednesday it is to amplify his claim that the left could do a better job of handling the economic crisis. With right-wing governments running 23 out of 27 countries in the EU, and austerity measures their only tool, Hollande says he can offer something different. His message – more sober than the high-spending Mitterrand promises of 30 years ago – is that state spending should be brought under control and deficits curbed, but that governments must also find ways to back growth and education or austerity measures won't work. He says his main adversary is big finance "gone mad", which must be regulated. » | Angelique Chrisafis in Paris | Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Monday, May 16, 2011

Strauss-Kahn Sex Case Throws Open Election Race

REUTERS: The arrest of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sexual assault charges has plunged France's Socialists into turmoil and thrown wide open the race for the presidency.

France was mesmerized on Monday by TV images of a handcuffed Strauss-Kahn, a center-leftist viewed until now as the frontrunner for the 2012 election, being led away by police for DNA tests over the alleged assault in a New York hotel.

His lawyers said Strauss-Kahn would plead not guilty to charges that he tried to rape a chambermaid at the hotel after chasing her, naked, down a corridor and trying to lock her in a room.

While politicians from all parties said Strauss-Kahn, popularly known by his initials DSK, should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, political commentators were unanimous in pronouncing the last rites on his political career.

"One thing is certain: Dominique Strauss-Kahn will not be the next president of the French republic," the conservative daily Le Figaro [€] said in an editorial. » | Jon Boyle and Catherine Bremer | PARIS | Monday, May 16, 2011

Sunday, May 08, 2011

In the Court of Carla Bruni

THE OBSERVER: The latest sensation in France's love-hate relationship with its first lady has been whether Carla Bruni is pregnant. And her appearance this week at Cannes in Woody Allen's latest film only adds to the fun. Here, five people in the know reveal what she really means to the republic

The long-suffering French public sometimes feels it knows a little too much about its first lady. In three years of Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni's whirlwind romance and marriage, we've been treated to their first dates, joint jogging sessions, pet names, expensive love tokens and taste for kissing in public – unprecedented at the Elysée Palace. We know Bruni hired a personal trainer who tones up the muscles of the couple's private parts, that beer makes her bloated and can lead to mistaken speculation that she's pregnant, that she's addicted to cigarettes and likes to watch DVDs with her husband after work (Stanley Kubrick or Pasolini). We were even treated to Madame Bruni-Sarkozy's old tissues and loose change when she once publicly tipped out the contents of her handbag for the nation (hairbrush, reading glasses, teddy and a notebook for jotting down song lyrics. "I've got writing like a psychopath," she helpfully explained).

We've listened to Bruni's album of love songs to her husband ("I want your laugh in my mouth" was one line) and now we'll inevitably troop to the cinema to watch her cameo in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris, shot as the proud president stood watching on set. In France, Allen is a god who can do no wrong. Perhaps Bruni's cameo is a way to redeem herself to a nation so embarrassed by her husband. Bruni's stint as première dame de France was never going to be easy. It wasn't the fact that she was a multimillionaire Italian former supermodel turned folk-pop singer who once dated Mick Jagger. It was more that the circumstances of her marriage to Sarkozy were stacked against her from the start. In autumn 2007, the newly elected Sarkozy went to pieces when his adored wife Cécilia finally divorced him. A teetotaller normally in bed by midnight, he begged friends to organise dinner parties to distract him. At one dinner he met Bruni, who looks uncannily like a younger version of his ex-wife. Less than three months later they married at the Elysée. It was his third marriage and her first. Spending the wedding night at their retreat in the grounds of the Palace of Versailles did little to stop the inevitable comparisons with Marie Antoinette, another fashion-obsessed foreigner married to an unpopular head of state. » | Angelique Chrisafis | Sunday, May 08, 2011

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Scandale: Familie Sarkozy verliert ihren Glanz

DIE PRESSE: Im Elysée-Palast geht es rund. Die Eheleute Carla Bruni und Nicolas Sarkozy sollen beide eine Affäre haben und der Sohn des Präsidenten ist in einem anzüglichen Video aufgetaucht.

Familie Sarkozy kommt in Verruf. Bild: Die Presse

Wilde Gerüchte gibt es derzeit um die Ehe des französischen Präsidentenpaares. Glaubt man dem "Journal du dimanche" [sic], gehen Carla Bruni (42) und ihr Ehemann Nicolas Sarkozy (55) seit mehreren Wochen fremd. Der First Lady wird eine Affäre mit dem Sänger Benjamin Biolay (37) unterstellt. Die beiden sollen seit Jahren befreundet sein und sich gerüchteweise auch schon eine Wohnung teilen.

Präsident Sarkozy dürfte wiederum mit seiner Umweltministerin Chantal Jouanno (40) mehr als nur beruflichen Kontakt pflegen. Die verheiratete Karate-Meisterin hat ihm einst die Reden geschrieben. In Frankreich wird nun heftig spekuliert, ob sich das Glamour-Paar par excellence bald trennen wird. Dem nicht genug, auch Sohnemann Pierre Sarkozy sorgt für fragwürdige Schlafzeilen. >>> APA/Red. | Donnerstag, 11. März 2010

Verbunden / Related:

Élysée Palace: Affaires d’amour >>> | Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Carla Bruni: 'Who Knows If It's Forever' >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Wednesday, March 10, 2010


Carla Bruni: 'Who Knows If It's Forever*'

THE TELEGRAPH: Carla Bruni has done little to end speculation about her relationship with Nicolas Sarkozy by giving a half-hearted response when questioned about whether her marriage "was forever".

In an interview with Sky News, the French first lady described her relationship as a "fairy tale" but went on to say she did not know how long it would last.

While discussing her husband, she was asked: "Is he for keeps – is he forever?"

After a long pause, she replied: "I guess marriage should be forever but who knows what happens. I wish it was forever, that's my hope ... but we could be dead tomorrow." >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Wednesday, March 10, 2010

*By Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s own admission, she has always found the idea of monogamy boring. What reason have we got to believe that she has changed her mind? It is my belief that she will probably stick with Nico for as long as he is Président de la République. Being la première dame de la République, after all, is too good to miss out on. Isn’t living in the elegant Élysée Palace and all the trappings that come with the position the real "fairy tale"? One doesn’t usually walk away from a fairy tale while it's unfolding; but when the time comes that she’ll have to move out of there, when the fairy tale will be at an end, possibly with Nico at her side, it will be a different story. If I’m not greatly mistaken, when that time comes, she’ll cast Nico aside like an old shoe, and she’ll go for a newer model! Nicolas will be unable to offer her the excitement any longer, the excitement she so obviously craves. – © Mark

THE TELEGRAPH: To the picture gallery / À la galerie de photos / Zur Fotogalerie >>>

TIMESONLINE: Carla Bruni denies affair rumours sparked by Twitter and internet gossip >>> Charles Bremner, Paris | Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Pour régler ses problèmes de couple, Sarkozy aurait zappé le salon de l'Agriculture

24HEURES: RUMEUR | Le président aurait raté l'inauguration du Salon pour se rendre de toute urgence dans la propriété de la famille Bruni au Cap Nègre.

Selon notre correspondant à Paris Jean-Noël Cuénod, les rédactions parisiennes bruissent de rumeurs concernant le couple Sarkozy.

Si les épisodes "Benjamin Biolay" pour l'une et "Chantal Jouanno" pour l'autre ne sont pas confirmés, il semble bien que les relations entre le président et Carla Bruni-Sarkozy sont au plus bas. >>> Rédaction on line | Mercredi 10 Mars 2010

Lien(s) en relation avec l’article

Élysée Palace: Affaires d’amour >>> | Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Tuesday, March 09, 2010


Élysée Palace: Affaires d’amour

THE SUN: RUMOURS that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni are BOTH having affairs are gaining momentum in France.

The suggestion that France's First couple were both committing adultery first emerged on networking site Twitter.

And it has now even been reported by prestigious Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

The first 'tweet' revealed that Bruni had allegedly become romantically involved with Benjamin Biolay, a musician and a winner at France's recent Victoires de la Musique' awards.

It went on the say that jilted President Sarkozy had swiftly found solace in the arms of his 40-year-old ecology minister Chantal Jouanno, also a French karate champion.

French web magazine suchablog.com then reported that Bruni had been a close friend of Biolay for many years and was now unofficially living with him at his flat in Paris.

The rumours were given extra weight after being reported in an blog on Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche's official website.

The paper wrote: "It's the gossip of the moment that could become the story of the year. Sarkozy and Carla’s ‘affairs’ >>> Staff Reporter | Tuesday, March 09, 2010

SUCHABLOG: Carla Bruni avec Benjamin Biolay – Nicolas Sarkozy avec Chantal Jouanno ?? >>> | Lundo 08 Mars 2010


Adultery at the Élysée?

MAIL ONLINE: Nicolas Sarkozy has refused to comment on claims that he and First Lady Carla Bruni are both having extra-marital affairs.

The suggestion that France's first couple are both committing adultery - she with a musician, he with a karate champion - has appeared in a prestigious Sunday newspaper.

Le Journal du Dimanche reported in a blog on its official website rumours that Ms Bruni has become romantically involved with Bejamin Biolay, a musician and a winner at France's recent Victoires de la Musique' awards. Are Sarkozy and Bruni BOTH having affairs? Elysee Palace refuses to comment on claims of adultery >>> Ian Sparks | Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni 'Both Having Affairs'

THE TELEGRAPH: Rumours that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy are both having affairs are gaining momentum in France.

(L) French Junior Minister for Ecology Chantal Jouanno (R) French singer Benjamin Biolay. Photos: The Telegraph

The suggestion that the couple were both committing adultery first emerged on Twitter, the microblogging website. It was followed by a report in the Sunday newspaper le Journal du Dimanche.

The first 'tweet' claimed that Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy had become romantically involved with Benjamin Biolay, a musician and a winner at France's recent Victoires de la Musique awards.

It then claimed that the jilted Mr Sarkozy had swiftly found solace in the arms of his 40-year-old ecology minister Chantal Jouanno, also a French karate champion. >>> | Tuesday, March 09, 2010

NEWS.COM.AU: Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni 'both having affairs' >>> | Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Bruni-Biolay, Sarko-Jouanno : l’incroyable rumeur

Friday, March 05, 2010

Carla Bruni and the Soutien-gorge She Left in Her Boudoir

Leave your abayah, burqah, chador, veil, dear musulmanes françaises at home! Carla gets away with leaving her bra at home for a State banquet in the palace, the Élysée Palace, that is. If God will forgive her for being bra-less, I’m sure He’ll forgive you for being veil-less! – © Mark



TIMES ONLINE: Should Carla Bruni have worn a bra? : France’s First Lady has divided opinion by hosting a state dinner wearing a tight Roland Mouret dress and no underwire [spelling deliberate, I assume] >>> | Friday, March 05, 2010

Wednesday, March 03, 2010


Carla Bruni Raises Eyebrows with Figure-hugging Dress

THE TELEGRAPH: It is not an obvious choice of dress for a first lady at a state dinner but then not all first ladies have Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's advantages.

The wife of Nicolas Sarkozy selected a figure hugging Roland Mouret dress that left only a very little to the imagination as she arrived with her husband at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

And while many may not have got away with it, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy carried off the outfit, which she teamed with Christian Louboutin heels, with grace.

The dinner was held in honour of Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian President, and his wife Svetlana, who have been on a three-day visit to France. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy arrives at state dinner in figure-hugging dress >>> | Wednesday, March 03, 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: Carla Bruni wears RM by the designer Roland Mouret: Carla loved the French designer's creation so much, that she has ordered three more of his designs. >>> Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director at Paris Fashion Week | Wednesday, March 03, 2010

KRONE.at: Da hilft kein geboxter Unschuldsblick: Fotos beweisen eindeutig, dass Frankreichs "First Lady" Carla Sarkozy-Bruni beim Staatsempfang ihres Mannes für den russischen Präsidenten Medwedew ohne Büstenhalter als BH-lose Gastgeberin dagestanden ist. Aber Madame! Carla Sarkozy-Bruni ohne BH beim Staatsempfang >>> | Donnerstag, 04. März 2010

Thursday, April 16, 2009

World Agenda: Nicolas Sarkozy Puts Barack Obama in the Doghouse

TIMESONLINE: Why the master of America's new First Mutt is no longer in good odour with President Sarkozy

Photobucket
Nico and Hussein. Photo courtesy of TimesOnline

France has been cooing along with everyone else over the arrival of Bo Obama at the White House, but the master of America's new First Dog is no longer in good odour with President Sarkozy.

Mr Sarkozy is pouring cold water on President Obama's efforts to recast American leadership on the world stage, depicting them as unoriginal, unsubstantial and overrated. Behind leaks and briefings from the Elysée Palace lies Mr Sarkozy's irritation at the rock-star welcome that Europe gave Mr Obama on his Europan [sic] tour earlier this month.

The American President's call "to free the world of the menace of a nuclear nightmare" was hot air, Mr Sarkozy's diplomatic staff told him in a report. "It was rhetoric – not a speech on American security policy but an export model aimed at improving the image of the United States," they said. Most of Mr Obama's proposals had already been made by the Bush administration and Washington was dragging its feet on disarmament and treaties against nuclear proliferation, the leaked report said.

Personal pique and French politics are also behind the souring of Mr Sarkozy's self-promoted honeymoon with the United States. On the personal side, the French President is needled by the adulation for an unproven US leader whose stardom has eclipsed what he sees as his established record as a world troubleshooter. "The President is annoyed by what he sees as the naivety and the herd mentality of the media," said a journalist who is privy to Elysée thinking. >>> Charles Bremner | Wednesday, April 15, 2009

TIMESONLINE: Sarkozy Snipes at 'Dim' Spanish PM and 'Weak' Obama

The US President is weak, the Spanish leader is dim, the German Chancellor is clinging on to France’s coat-tails and the head of the European Commission is irrelevant.

That, at any rate, is the world according to President Sarkozy, who has spent the week airing his unvarnished opinions of Barack Obama and an array of international politicians — abruptly ending France’s honeymoon with the US and needling Washington on several strategic issues.

In the latest in a stream of accounts from the Élysée Palace, Mr Sarkozy was quoted yesterday as telling an all-party group of MPs that Mr Obama was inexperienced and indecisive. “Obama has a subtle mind, very clever and very charismatic,” the French President said. “But he was elected two months ago and had never run a ministry. There are a certain number of things on which he has no position. And he is not always up to standard on decision-making and efficiency.”

The US President had underperformed on climate change when they met, Mr Sarkozy said, according to an account of the MP’s session in the newspaper Libération. “I told him, ‘I don’t think that you have quite understood what we are doing on carbon dioxide’.”

Mr Sarkozy was apparently irked by media reports that Mr Obama had saved the day in London by persuading President Hu of China to reach a compromise with France over tax havens. Mr Sarkozy’s version is that he shamed Mr Obama into action, telling him: “You were elected to build a new world. Tax havens are the embodiment of the old world.” >>> Charles Bremner in Paris | Friday, April 17, 2009

L’EXPRESS: Sarkozy ironise sur l"obamania"

Nicolas Sarkozy relativise l'état de grâce dont bénéficie Barack Obama :"Les journalistes n'ont pas de mémoire! En 2000, George W. Bush était si populaire que Jacques Chirac s'était arrangé pour dîner avec lui avant même qu'il ne soit investi." Le président français, qui accueillera son homologue américain sur les plages de Normandie le 6 juin, pour le 65e anniversaire du Débarquement, ironise sur l'"obamania" des médias : "Je vais lui demander de marcher sur la Manche, et il va le faire, vous verrez..." [Source: L’Express] Jeudi 16 Avril 2009

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Carla and Nicolas Tie the Knot

Photobucket
Photo of Nicolas and Carla courtesy of Google Images

THE TELEGRAPH: French president Nicolas Sarkozy has married ex-supermodel Carla Bruni in a "secret" ceremony at the Elysée Palace in Paris.

The wedding took place just two and a half months after they met, and three and a half months after he divorced his second wife.

They were married at 11am with François Lebel, mayor of Paris's fashionable 8th arrondissement - in which the palace is situated - officiating.

Mr Sarkozy, 53, and Miss Bruni, 40, exchanged vows in a state room on the first floor of the presidential palace after a highly-publicised whirlwind romance.

Mr Lebel said: "I married two voters from the 8th arrondissement, who live at 55 rue du Faubourg St Honoré," referring to the address of the palace, which is next door to the British Embassy.

"Historically, this is the first time in the history of the Republic that a president has married in the course of his term. It's the first time a president has married at the Elysée," he said.

"Carla married in white and looked ravishing," Mr Lebel added.

Now the controversial model, whose past loves include Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, will be France's First Lady.

Suggesting that the wedding was a last minute, spontaneous affair, Mr Sarkozy announced the cancellation of a visit to the military base at Creil, north of Paris, due for Saturday afternoon.

One of the reasons for the sudden marriage was apparently next month's planned state visit to Britain, with Mr Sarkozy concerned about being a guest of the Queen at Windsor Castle with only a "live-in lover" to accompany him.

Witnesses were Prada executive Mathilde Agostinelli - a close friend of the previous Madame Sarkozy - and Nicolas Bazire, managing director of Groupe Arnault and one of the richest men in France. France's Nicolas Sarkozy marries Carla Bruni >>> By Peter Allen in Paris

REUTERS:
Sarkozy marries Bruni at the Elysee By Crispian Balmer and Sudip Kar-Gupta

LE FIGARO:
Nicolas Sarkozy a épousé
Carla Bruni ce matin De Samuel Potier

LE MONDE:
Nicolas Sarkozy et Carla Bruni se sont mariés samedi matin à l'Elysée

EUROPE 1:
Nicolas Sarkozy et Carla Bruni maries

SUEDDEUTSCHE:
Hochzeit, na endlich: Seit Wochen wird ... spekuliert, Bruni erwarte ein Kind

NZZ Online: Nicolas Sarkozy und Carla Bruni haben geheiratet: Der französische Präsident vermählt sich mit der Sängerin >>>

BLICK:
Sarkozy hat gerade eine Scheidung hinter sich, Bruni, die sich selbst als sexuell massloss bezeichnet, hat schon ganz andere Alpha-Männchen in die Wüste geschickt: Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton oder Donald Trump können ein Lied davon singen. Und wahre Liebe dauere bei ihr sowieso «nie länger als drei Monate».Blick

Ex-Frau Cécilia: [Nicolas Sarkozy ist] «unfähig zu lieben» - Blick

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Friday, January 11, 2008

Cécilia Sarkozy: "Carla Bruni Won't Make Him Forget Me in a Hurry!"

Photobucket
Photo of Nicolas and Cécilia courtesy of The Telegraph

THE TELEGRAPH: President Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife Cécilia has branded him a "stingy philanderer" with a "behavioural problem" who is an "unworthy president" of France.

Cécilia Sarkozy is reported to have made the comments before Mr Sarkozy hinted that he will marry the ex-supermodel Carla Bruni following a whirlwind affair of less than three months.

As the Élysée palace soap opera descended to new depths of vitriol, Mrs Sarkozy alleged that her 52-year-old ex-husband was "a man who likes no-one, not even his children".

According to a new book, she even called the president's other female friends "a bunch of slappers" and young female government ministers "boring wallflowers".

Mrs Sarkozy is also said to have launched a thinly veiled attack on the president's 40-year-old fiancee, telling a friend: "Carla Bruni won't make him forget me in a hurry!"

Although Mr Sarkozy is expected to marry Miss Bruni, Mrs Sarkozy is unconvinced that her ex-husband of eleven years has got over her, and he is currently on the rebound. Nicolas Sarkozy's ex attacks 'stingy' husband >>> By Peter Allen in Paris

THE GUARDIAN:
Sarkozy’s ex-wife fails to ban book of revelations By David Batty and agencies

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)