France: Au revoir Carla Bruni, France's new first lady is cut from a different cloth

Valerie Trierweiler

Valerie Trierweiler, one of six children from a humble Loire Valley family, has become a familiar face at home only since Hollande, a lifelong party official and MP, burst from relative obscurity a year ago to beat heavyweight rivals to the Socialist nomination. She became familiar in the background as a regal, discreet but steely force with a protective eye on Hollande, who occasionally unleashes a barbed tweet at those who cross her.

People who know the couple credit her with a strong role in Hollande's spectacular rise. He has blossomed with his new companion, they say, after a rough period as party leader that culminated in the presidential campaign and defeat of Segolene Royal, the Socialist candidate in 2007. Royal was, of course, Hollande's partner and the mother of their four children. As the political world knew at the time, but the public did not, Trierweiler and Hollande were already an item. The twice-divorced Trierweiler - she carries the name of her second husband Denis, a Paris Match journalist and university lecturer, with whom she has three sons, aged 15, 17 and 19 - has lived with Hollande in their rented Left Bank flat since 2007.

A crowning moment of their companionship came on Sunday night when an accordion struck up Edith Piaf's anthem La Vie en Rose after Hollande's victory speech in Tulle, the country town that has been his political base since the 1980s. All of France watched Hollande's surprise at the romantic song, which had been organised by Trierweiler. "Why La Vie en Rose? That's a state secret," she says.

Read more: Au revoir Carla Bruni, France's new first lady is cut from a different cloth | The Australian