Trierweiler leaves Paris alone, but in first lady style French president's newly jilted girlfriend heads for airport in state limousine with police escort By David Chazan in Paris and Dean Nelson in Mumbai.
Trierweiler leaves Paris alone, but in first lady style French president's newly jilted girlfriend heads for airport in state limousine with police escort By David Chazan in Paris and Dean Nelson in Mumbai.
She had been officially dumped by Francois Hollande the evening before, but Valerie Trierweiler was still afforded all the trappings of France's first lady as she was spirited out of Paris and jetted off to India on Sunday.
At the behest of the Elysee Palace, the new ex-girlfriend of the French president was provided with a limousine and a motorcycle police escort to secure her route out of the city.
It followed Mr Hollande's announcement on Saturday evening that the couple had separated after disclosures about his long-running an affair with an actress.
Ms Trierweiler was taken all the way to the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport without running the gauntlet of waiting camera crews.
From there she flew to Mumbai for a two-day charity visit. Accompanying her on the trip was a bodyguard and her chief of staff, Patrice Biancone. If she took the usual route into the Indian city, the newly single Ms Trierweiler would have passed a multitude of wedding parties on a day deemed highly auspicious for matrimony by local astrologers.
Despite her reduced status, she arrived at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace hotel just after 1am in a convoy of black limousines with two police jeeps for security.
She stepped out into the glare of arc lights from French television crews but appeared relaxed and air-kissed staff of the charity who greeted her. She was whisked through the hotel's lobby without commenting, but smiled as a screen was closed behind her.
Before her departure, a former French cabinet minister rather scathingly compared her to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, who was famously pictured in a mournful pose in front of the Taj Mahal during her marital difficulties.
Ms Trierweiler, 48, a prominent Paris Match journalist before meeting Mr Hollande, will seek her own image rehabilitation in Mumbai, where she will visit a hospital that runs a scheme for malnourished children. It will be a delicate business.
Philippe Rande of Action Contre La Faim (Action Against Hunger), said her schedule might be changed to spare her the embarrassment of facing reporters who are likely to be more interested in her separation from Mr Hollande than her "humanitarian mission". "It's hard to imagine visiting a hospital with a large number of journalists there to cover the event," Mr Rande said.
She is also due to attend a charity dinner with 50 wives of prominent local businessmen before returning to France tomorrow and a new life as a private citizen. Strictly speaking, Ms Trierweiler was never even first lady - there is no such position under the French constitution - yet she was provided with an office and five members of staff.
Now she labours under the unprecedented title of first significant other of a French president to be jilted in office. Michel Sapin, the country's labour minister, said the unofficial role of first lady had effectively been terminated by the presidential couple's split after the revelation of a long-running love affair between the president, 59, and Julie Gayet, 41, a regular face in art house films.
Rene Dosiere, a member of parliament from Mr Hollande's Socialist Party, said taxpayers stood to benefit. "This separation will save euros 400,000 (pounds 331,440) a year in public expenditure," he claimed, explaining that on top of the euros 250,000 a year it cost to run Ms Trierweiler's office and pay her staff, the state had also funded her security and travel.
Ms Trierweiler has not made a statement since Mr Hollande confirmed their split, except for a tweet thanking her former staff at the Elysee. She has, however, briefed journalists. She was believed to be behind a report in Le Parisien newspaper quoting "a friend" as saying: "What's painful for her isn't so much leaving the Elysee and all its decorum but losing the man she loves." According to the "friend", she held a meeting with Mr Hollande shortly before his announcement on Saturday evening but refused to sign a joint statement.
The president's staff have concerns of their own. Ms Trierweiler, it is said, is prone to outrage. On Friday she sacked her lawyer for suggesting she wanted a "proper and dignified exit" from the relationship, which is exactly what she appears to have sought.
She often squabbled with Mr Hollande and could further harm his standing, though at 22%, his poll ratings could barely get lower.
The Journal du Dimanche newspaper reported that Mr Hollande had agreed to give Ms Trierweiler a financial settlement and would let her keep the Paris flat which he owns. "Women will have cost me dear," the newspaper quoted the president as telling friends.
Mr Hollande has never married. He had four children with Segolene Royal, another Socialist politician, before leaving her for Ms Trierweiler.
After eight years he began an affair with Miss Gayet. Now without an official partner, he was said to be looking forward to a less complicated private life.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}