KEY POINTS:
France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, has revealed that she fell in love with the President for his good looks and his "five or six brains".
In a book containing Bruni-Sarkozy's first extensive interviews on her high-profile, whirlwind, power romance, the pop singer says her attraction to the President at a "blind date" was "immediate".
"I didn't expect someone so funny and so alive," she told the authors, Valerie Benaim and Yves Azeroual.
"I was seduced by his looks, his charm and his intelligence. He has five or six remarkably fertile brains. I didn't go out with cretins before I met him, That's not my style. But he is really, really quick."
The book - La Veritable Histoire de Carla et Nicolas (Editions du Moment) - partly rejects and partly confirms rumours of a difficult relationship between the new first lady and the French Justice Minister, Rachida Dati. Dati is not only a protege of the President but was also a close friend of his ex-wife, Cecilia.
The book quotes a source as saying that Bruni-Sarkozy, 40, once teased Dati that she had ambitions to marry the President.
As the two women passed close to a bed in one of the private rooms in the Elysee Palace, Bruni-Sarkozy - not yet the first lady - is reported to have said: "You would have loved to have slept here, wouldn't you?"
- INDEPENDENT
