Historical touch

Paris, Feb. 2 (Reuters): French President Nicolas Sarkozy married supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni at the Elysee Palace today, just three months after they started dating.

“Carla Bruni Tedeschi and Nicolas Sarkozy would like to announce that they got married this morning in the presence of their families and in the utmost privacy,” a statement from Sarkozy’s Elysee office said. The pair tied the knot at a low-key, civil ceremony conducted by the mayor of the Paris district that houses the President’s grandiose official residence.

“I married two voters ... who live at 55 Rue du Faubourg St Honore,” Mayor Francois Lebel told Europe 1 radio, giving the official address of the Elysee. “The bride was wearing white and was ravishing, as usual,” he said, adding: “The bridegroom wasn't bad either.” Another official told Reuters the wedding took place at 1000 GMT.

Sarkozy and Bruni indicated last month that they planned to marry after a whirlwind romance and made clear that it would be a private affair, far from the eyes of the press.

Their relationship has been splashed across the media and Sarkozy’s popularity ratings have plunged in recent weeks, with voters complaining that the President was focusing too much on his private life and not enough on the country’s many problems, including rising prices and flagging consumer confidence.

Now they are wed, Sarkozy might find it easier to manage the relationship because Bruni will become the First Lady of France and will start travelling with him on his many overseas trips.

Lebel said the wedding took place in a room on the first floor of the Elysee Palace and lasted about 20 minutes.

“There were around 20 people there, close family and a few friends,” he said. The mayor said the last French head of state to marry while in office was Napoleon III in 1853.

Sarkozy, 53, separated from his second wife Cecilia last October following an 11-year marriage and just five months after winning power. His colleagues said he was deeply upset by the divorce.

However, friends say he started seeing 40-year-old Bruni the following month and they were photographed visiting Paris Disneyland together in December.

They then spent the Christmas holidays together in Egypt and Jordon.