Carla Bruni-Sarkozy furious as French magazines publish baby photo

After the French weekly "news" magazine Paris Match published a long-lens photo in it most recent issue in which five-month-old Giulia Sarkozy's face is clearly visible, two other French celebrity rags have followed suit.

Paris Match cover (screenshot AFP report)

And France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is livid.

It doesn't really matter what you think of Bruni-Sarkozy's past - or her present come to that.

You might well regard her as a somewhat laughable and/or incongrous presence alongside her husband Nicolas Sarkozy as he seeks a second term as French president.

But put aside whatever you think about her previous relationships, her career as a top model and the delightful strains of her raspy voice as a singer for one moment and concentrate on her role as a mother.

And surely you have to admit that she has a point in being furious at the French media for not respecting the rights of her five-month-old daughter, Giulia.

Voici cover (screenshot Voici magazine)

Even before she was born in October 2011, Giulia was the focus of more media attention than probably even your average famous adult could handle.

When Bruni-Sarkozy went into hospital for the birth there was a virtual media pack camped outside the hospital, waiting, ready to report ...well what usually happens after a woman has been pregnant for nine months: she gives birth.

Bruni-Sarkozy - or rather Giulia, kept the hungry "newshounds" waiting a while, but then she popped into the world becoming and remaining for the moment, arguably one of the world's most famous babies.

All of course because her parents are who they are.

So that makes her fair game doesn't it? The paparazzi should be able to take whatever long-lens photos they like and magazines publish them regardless.

After all Giulia is newsworthy because her parents are. They survive and thrive partially through exposure so they should expect their children to...well learn to cope with fame.

That's far from being how Bruni-Sarkozy sees it and she insisted from the moment her daughter was born that the French media cut her, and in particular Giulia, some slack and not invade what are very private moments for both of them

So her wrath - measured to say the very least - after the French weekly magazine Paris Match published a photo of the two of them in its last issue, was perhaps more than understandable.

"Because I believe in the principle of the freedom of the press, I have always accepted without any problem the publication of photographs or unauthorised information, even when it's erroneous, concerning my private life," she writes on her official site.

But I deplore any use made ​​of images of children as well as any reporting which might touch on their private lives," she continues.

"I have repeatedly expressed my views on this subject. My position has not changed."

The call though, seems to have fallen on deaf ears as far as the French media is concerned - at least the celebrity and gossip sector of the magazine market.

Paris Match has already featured a photo of Bruni-Sarkozy with Giula on its front cover; one in which the face of the five-month-old is clearly visible.

And two other French magazines are set to follow that example this week with Voici and Closer both planning to publish the photo as a "scoop".

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy baby rumour and the fawning journalist

Is she or isn't she? Speculation that France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is pregnant has been circulating for several weeks now.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (screenshot from TF1 news)

Of course she has given interviews and steadfastly refused to comment on what for her "is a private matter" but that hasn't prevented journalists from asking her - directly or indirectly depending on their style.

Except for one - "journalist" that is (and there's a reason for using the inverted commas).

Jean-Pierre Pernaut is, among other things, the anchor of the lunchtime news programme on TF1.

He is, to put it politely, not exactly the most hard-hitting of journalists, preferring a cosy, non-confrontational and almost ingratiating style when he has a guest in the studio.

So perhaps viewers knew what to expect when he interviewed Bruni-Sarkozy on Monday, primarily about her Good Deeds and in particular her campaign against illiteracy.

But Pernaut reached new lows in his already questionable journalistic standards while winding up the interview when he said, "I know you don't like talking about your private life, but I just want to congratulate you."

Bruni-Sarkozy looked somewhat taken aback, at a loss for an appropriate response, smiled and said, "Congratulations (to you) too."

No, it doesn't mean Pernaut is the father.

If you have the stomach for it, take a look at the accompanying clip - and try not to cringe.

Pernault à Carla Bruni: "Je vous félicite" Vidéo jeanmarcmorandini sélectionnée dans TV/Séries

Meanwhile Bruni-Sarkozy might not be talking about the likely patter of tiny feet, but her father-in-law is.

Pal Sarkozy told the German daily tabloid Bild that he was going to be a grandfather - again. And he's delighted.

"The couple don't want to know the sex of the baby," the 82-year-old indiscreetly told the paper.

"But I'm sure that if it's a girl, she'll be as beautiful as Carla."

Which raises the question perhaps, if it's a boy it'll be as "what" as his father?

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy pregnancy rumours

Speculation is rife on the Net that France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is pregnant.

The source of course is an irreproachable one; the French weekly celebrity gossip magazine Closer, which asserts in its latest edition that "someone very close to the couple," had provided the information.


It's a story which really doesn't matter whether it's true. The very fact that it's out there in the public domain - albeit it Twitterdom and the less serious elements of the mainstream media - means that it has somewhat taken on a life of its own.

The presidential office - the Elysée palace - has reacted of sorts when questioned by the national weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche with "It's a matter which touches on the private life of the president" - another way of saying "No comment' in a country which has very strict laws which are largely accepted when it comes to public figures.

Perhaps that explains why the so-called story has not really made on the sites or pages of France's main newspapers and magazines, let alone the airwaves and screens of radio and television.

As Bruno Roger-Petit points out on the French website Le Post, there has been almost complete indifference from the mainstream media (other than the usual suspects) to the speculation so far.

Perhaps that's not so surprising as this is the third time in as many years that rumours have surfaced about an impending patter of tiny feet at the Elysée palace.

Just run a Google search and you'll be able to pull up umpteen articles maintaining Bruni-Sarkozy has at one point or another been expecting.

Be that as it may, Closer is sticking to its guns this time around.

The editor of the magazine, Laurence Pieau, confirmed the "scoop" to the national daily Le Parisien, saying that she was certain the information was more than reliable.

"We would not have divulged the news without being completely sure," she said.

"It has been corroborated by several different sources and we are convinced that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is in the earliest weeks of her pregnancy."

The next few days and weeks will tell whether the rumour is true, but in the meantime, Closer has created a buzz, ensured its sales for the following week, and taken everyone's mind away from political affairs that might actually be of some importance over the coming year as campaigning hots up for the presidential elections in May 2012.

Verdict of "neglect" for vegan couple over baby's death

A court in the northern city of Amiens has found Sergine and Joël Le Moaligou guilty of neglect and failure to provide medical care or proper nutrition for their daughter, Louise who died in 2008.

screenshot from France 2 report

They couple were both sentenced to five years imprisonment, but are unlikely to spend time behind bars as part if it was suspended and the period they've spent in custody was taken into account.

The sentence was more lenient than the one the prosecution had called for of 10 years imprisonment.

The case was one where faith in an alternative lifestyle - as well-intentioned as it might have been - came head-to-head with reality. And the results were tragic.

The couple are vegans, and had fed Louise on nothing other than breast milk up until the day she died at the age of 11 months.

When Louise started losing weight they took her to see a doctor who suspected pneumonia.

In spite of a recommendation to take their daughter to hospital for further tests and treatment, the parent's decided to care for her at home - using alternative methods.

Her condition didn't improve and by the time they called the emergency services it was too late.

Louise was just 11 months old when she died of a bronchial infection and weighed 5.7 kilogrammes.

The prosecuting attorney Anne-Laure Sandretto had argued that their alternative lifestyle wasn't on trial but rather whether the couple had "shown a lack of care and caused the death of their child.'

That somehow didn't marry with Sandretto's call for a 10-year prison sentence and her insistence that Louise had died "because of her parents' beliefs and rejection of traditional medicine."

An autopsy on Louise revealed that she suffered from a vitamin A and B12 deficiency, both of which are essential to a child's growth.

For Sandretto that suggested proof of the parents' culpability as Louise had only been fed on breast milk.

"The problem of the vitamin B12 deficiency would be linked to the diet of the mother," Sandretto said.

But the couple also had another child, 12-year-old Elodie, who had not suffered the same vitamin deficiencies and a doctor who had seen Louise at eight months had described her as being "in perfect health."

Speaking after the trial Anne-Laure Pillon, the lawyer for the plaintiff, called the decision the right one, even if it might have appeared lenient to some.

"It gives the family some hope," she told France 2 television.

"At the same time it shows limits and makes clear to the parents that they didn't react appropriately."

The couple have also lost partial parental responsibility for education and health of their older daughter.

"Miracle" baby survives seven storey fall in Paris

If you need one of those uplifting "miraculous" type of tales to brighten up your November day as you go about your business, then this is surely one to do it.

On Monday an 18-month-old boy fell from the seventh floor of a building in Paris.

But the toddler survived unharmed after the fall was broken by a restaurant awning before landing in the arms of a passerby.

It was an extraordinary turn of events that took just a matter of seconds to play out and was more than a double dose of luck for the toddler who had, according to reports, been left alone just for a few moments with a young sister playing on the apartment's small balcony.

But a few moments was all it took for events to unfold.

At one point, according to witnesses, the boy got a little too close to the edge and slipped, before falling.

It was at that precise moment that the "saviour" happened to be around, although he was more than humble in his explanation of what occurred, telling reporters that it had been his son who had alerted him to the danger.

"My son told me he could see a young child playing on the balustrade just outside of the apartment," Philippe Bensignor told reporters.

"And just as he said that, the child fell and bounced off the awning (of the café underneath) and I was able to catch it without any problem."

"It was like catching a rugby ball," he continued.

"It really was pure chance."

And the hero's profession? A doctor, who just happened to be in the area walking with his wife and son.

Emergency services arrive (screenshot from "Le Parisien" video)

After checking that the child was unscathed he handed him over to the emergency services who had arrived on the scene and it was taken to a nearby hospital for a full check-up.

Sarkozy the next generation - it's a boy

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy has become a grand-father for the first time.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning Jessica, the wife of Sarkozy's second son, Jean, gave birth to a baby boy, according to the Internet site, Purepeople, which was the first to break the news.

Although there hasn't yet been an official statement from the Elysée palace, the president's office, the news has been confirmed by Patrick Balkany, a close friend of the family and the mayor of the Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret, who told reporters (in that time-honoured tradition) that "both mother and baby were doing well."

The latest arrival to the Sarkozy family has might have some large footprints in which to tread but his will surely be a future cushioned by the fact that it'll be financially secure and potentially glowing.

His grandfather (who turns 55 at the end of this month) is of course president, and at 23 years of age his father is already an up-and-coming (already-arrived) member of the country's governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party as a regional councillor in Hauts-de-Seine.

And that's not forgetting his mother, who just happens to be an heiress to the big electronics company Darty.

All factors undoubtedly which have meant that, in this era in which politicians have achieved near celebrity status here in France, the Net has awash with surfers speculating none-too-seriously (perhaps) over what'll be in store for the baby.

"Nicolas Sarkozy's grandson has been appointed general manager of his future nursery," runs one tweet for example, a reference to his father's recent controversial candidature (later withdrawn) for the top job at l'Etablissement public d'aménagement du quartier d'affaires de la Défense (Epad), the development agency for business district of La Defense on the outskirts of Paris.

As for what the baby will be called - well there's no word on that yet. But a source close the president (yes it's that sort of story) has reportedly said that it'll be a "very unusual" name.

"Epad" suggested one wit in Twitter.

French holiday "miracle baby" stories

Extra value in this end-of-year piece in that it's a "triple pack" if you will.

Three stories connected to each other only in the sense that they all happened in France over the past week and in each instance involved a baby or a young child.

In two of the cases, the child survived in circumstances that really didn't bode well - to say the very least.

In the third...well it's just an uplifting tale that's surely guaranteed to warm the heart and bring a smile to even the most curmudgeonly reader.

There's sadness in the tale of the first "miracle baby", a 20-month-old girl from the town of Harfleur in northern France.

Just a couple of days before Christmas her 26-year-old mother, who was going through a separation, made her way to the cliffs of the nearby coastal town of Étretat and jumped to her death, her daughter in her arms.

An alert had been raised earlier in the afternoon by the woman's husband who had reportedly 'phoned the emergency services to say that he was concerned about her mental state and the welfare of the child after they had left the family home in nearby Harfleur.

Helicopters were dispatched in the area and two bodies spotted at the foot of the cliffs.

"The mother gave no sign of life, but the girl blinked," Christopher Margrit, a spokesman for the emergency services said.

The girl was rushed to hospital with a head injury and several fractures, her survival attributed to the fact that her body had probably been cushioned by the body of her mother in the 70-metre fall.

On Monday a two-year-old boy also escaped death, this time unscathed, in the ski resort of Arêches-Beaufort in the French Alps.

He was buckled into the child seat as his parents were unloading the car when, in spite of the hand brake being on, the vehicle began sliding backwards.

Although his mother and aunt tried in vain to rescue him, they couldn't reach him in time and the car fell 70 metres into a ravine near where it had been parked, saved from overturning by coming to rest on a tree stump.

When the emergency services arrived on the scene they were able to free the child, who was apparently still ensconced in his seat and emerged without a scratch.

The only injury incurred in the incident was to the aunt who had a fallen into the ravine in her rescue attempt. She was hospitalised with a suspected broken leg.

And finally, as promised, that heart-warming tale, which involves life rather than death in the shape of Tyfène, a 12-year-old girl in the north-west of the country who acted as the midwife in the birth of her sister.

She has become a veritable heroine in France after her exploits on December 26.

When her mother, Stéphanie, went into labour early in the morning the day after Christmas, the father-to-be, Fabrice Raoult, proved to be less than up to the task of handling the situation, and it was Tyfène who took matters in hand.

She dispatched him into the garden "to get some fresh air", rang the emergency services to inform them that the contractions had begun, but was informed there would probably be some delay in their arrival because driving conditions were difficult with black ice covering the roads on the way to the hamlet of Couëdic where the family lived.

The 12-year-old (and it's probably worth repeating that) kept her cool though.

"After a moment of panic, I quickly came to my senses and realised I was the only one who could help," she confidently recounted after the event.

"The baby came out and I washed and placed her on mummy's tummy," she continued rather matter-of-factly in numerous interviews she has given since.

"I didn't dare cut the cord but five minutes later the emergency services arrived to do that," she added.

Just for the record, baby sister Maëlys weighed in at 3,380kg and she, along with mother and older sister are doing just fine.

So is the father apparently, who by all accounts is rightly proud of his 12-year-old step daughter.

High speed birth on Paris-Brussels Thalys train

Taking the high-speed train that links Paris and Brussels isn't usually a dramatic affair, but on Monday the Thalys service experienced a "first" since it started operating in 1996 as a baby girl was born on board shortly before the train reached its destination.

As Thalys (the equivalent of the Eurostar service only it connects the French and Belgian Belgian capitals) leaves Gare du Nord in Paris, it doesn’t waste much time in picking up speed and zapping through the notoriously flat northern French countryside.

In fact the landscape passes in such a giddy blur that it's just as well passengers can fit in a spot of work during the journey. That's made easier by the wifi Internet connection (free in first class, a small supplement in second) which is a must-have for a service that has become the usual way for businessmen and politicians to travel - almost "commute" between the two cities.

In peak hours, trains leave from Paris every 30 minutes - and it has become an even more important link between the two cities since Air France stopped flying the route because it simply couldn't compete.

The train reaches a maximum speed of 300 kilometres per hour, and that apparently was how fast it was travelling when a woman went into labour on Monday.

Luckily for both the expectant mother and the baby there was a doctor on board, and as the train manager Michel Pauly said, the birth really was a maximum velocity one.

"The birth went very smoothly, I didn't realise it could happen so quickly," he said.

"After the woman contacted me I made an announcement and we were lucky enough to have two nurses and a doctor on board who helped in the delivery," he added.

"The little girl was born without any complications...she was clearly in a hurry to discover the country."

It was all over by the time the train pulled into Brussels, where the mother and baby were transferred to hospital - both in fine fettle according to reports.

And should the as yet unnamed girl wish to take the train again, she won't have to dig deep into her pockets as the boss of Thalys, Olivier Poitrenaud, has offered her a life-time pass to travel free with the company.