Busy introduction for Hollande

After a bruising, and occasionally nasty, election campaign, France's future and ousted Presidents stood solemnly, and movingly, side-by-side at a ceremony to commemorate the end of World War II in Europe.

President Nicolas Sarkozy graciously invited his conqueror, Francois Hollande, to help him to place a wreath beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

The Socialist winner stepped aside and allowed Sarkozy to relight, symbolically, the permanent flame which burns on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The ceremony to mark VE Day - or Victory in Europe in 1945 - is likely to be Sarkozy's last public action as President before Hollande takes office next week.

Hollande said that it was "helpful for the country to know that it can come together ... around the President still in power, and the newly elected one, for a single cause: the country".

Hollande faces a whirlwind introduction to power, including three summits - G8, Nato and an emergency European Union meeting - in his first eight days. His most urgent task will be to establish a working relationship with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in a meeting in Berlin.

Hollande and his partner, Valerie Trierweiler, also face two pressing questions which usually dog much younger couples. Should they get married? And where will they live?

The couple will almost certainly have to leave their flat in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.

They have been advised that a head of state living in a flat surrounded by ordinary citizens would be a security nightmare.

- Independent