France's First Lady: No Nancy or Michelle in the house!

So I know I mentioned the new first lady's age appropriateness and chic attire in my previous post, but oh la la I had no idea what interesting fodder she actually is! The New York time's had a great article on miss Valérie Trierweiler this morning. Here are my comments.

1. Firstly, notice her last name. It's not Hollande and it's not because she decided to not take his name...it's because they aren't married! And on top of that, Mr. President was married (with 4 kids) and she was the mistress. They didn't come out publicly until 2010. SCANDAL. Except not, seems to be sort of blaseé in France. Whatever, it's a SCANDAL to me.
2. Secondly, she's a journalist. And still covered politics until recently. That whole conflict of interest thing is a lot more lax in France. In fact, I've heard that a lot -- journalists are more opinionated here (Not having the ability to read the French media, I can't comment ha).  And I quote, " All journalists have opinions, they all vote, they all have sympathy, friendships. But they’re not asked to justify them. We believe in their integrity, we trust them and we’re right to do so." Although, I guess there is always FOX News in the US -- an unparalelled example of journalistic integrity ha.
3. Thirdly, she's struggling with her role of First Lady in France because there is no role of First lady in France. The first lady's are not supposed to do anything. I find this quite strange, as I've always known first lady's to have an agenda...or at least the memory of my recent first ladies (hillary with health care and michelle with childhood obesity...I wonder when this first lady agenda thing started? hmm). Plus, US First ladies help with the campaign, give speeches, kiss cute children, save Africa, etc. They are definitely well known and in the spot light, but apparently that doesn't happen here. They  have babies...Carla did that quite well although it didn't help boost Sarkozy's popularity. I can understand why Valerie is struggling with this...surely you aren't allowed to be a journalist if you're first lady! They also aren't married, so she doesn't want Hollande to support her family (she has 3 teenage boys). 
• As a tangent, I wonder if this has something to do with the misogynistic culture which is latent in French society. This is a whole 'nother post, but you have to wonder.
4. She had no clue that when she 'fell' for him that he would be president. It was over 6 years ago, he was an odd, leftist politician who wasn't really on the radar. She says she's almost laughing about it now, because the thought 6 years ago would be too ridiculous. 
5. INTERESTINGLY, Mr. Hollande's EX-WIFE  Ségolène Royal , ran for president in 2007 (from possible first husband to president, bizarre!). She obviously lost to Mr. Sarkozy, whom Mr. Hollande defeated. Talk about getting back at your ex-wife!

Sorry that was a long one, but wow, French politics are so different here! No pesky republicans picking apart everyone's personal lives (okay, I'm sure democrats do it too, but that whole 'family values' platform really wouldn't fly here). Imagine when all that really matters in a campaign are the politics? That's crazy speak.