“CONNAISSANCE” is a French word with multiple senses. It can be used to define ‘consciousness’ or to identify a person you know only casually, an ‘acquaintance’ so to speak. A famous episode of these two meanings connected with the Elysée Palace goes back to March 16, 1899.

On that day the seventh president of the French Republic, Félix Faure who was 57 at the time, happened to be in a rather intimate situation with his 25-year-old mistress Marguerite Steinheil when he suffered a fatal heart attack. Fearing scandal, the young lady hastily left the bed as well as the presidential palace.

Later, a guard noticing the official valet in a state of panic following the discovery of Félix Faure lying unconscious, asked him what was wrong. “Monsieur le President has lost his connaissance,” the valet answered. “No, no,” insisted the guard, “I just saw her leaving through the rear gate.”

Since then there have been many cases of a married French president being involved in an affair with another woman, among the relatively more recent ones the revelation in 1994 of the existence of Mazarine, François Mitterrand’s grown up, out-of-wedlock daughter, then of Nicolas Sarkozy divorcing his wife soon after his election victory in 2007 and marrying his secret love, the pop star Carla Bruni.

So the scoop last week by the tabloid ‘Closer’ of President François Hollande having his own little adventure did not shock France. His love life is his own business and does not concern the public, many said, true to their reputation of being French.

Apparently First Lady Valérie Trierweiler did not feel that way. It remains unknown to date whether it was the shock of the information or if she really tried something dreadful, but the media talked tongue-in-cheek of her hospitalisation in an emergency shortly after the ‘Closer’ story became public knowledge.

The tabloid’s pages carried photographs of François Hollande wearing a helmet and riding a scooter. He could also be seen entering or coming out of the apartment building where lives Julie Gayet, a practically unknown French actress some 20 years younger than the president.

François Hollande never denied the report. His official declaration only deplored the violation of respect of his private life to which ‘he has the same right as any other French citizen.’

But he has his critics too. They say unlike his predecessors François Hollande has never been a married man. Until 2007 when the Socialist party candidate Ségolène Royal lost the presidential election to Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande used to live with her without ever bothering to get married.

He quickly left Ségolène Royal after her defeat and started living with Valéry Trierweiler. Actually there were many objections to Trierweiler’s moving into the Elysée Palace after Hollande was elected President in 2012. She was provided with an office, staff, security arrangements, chauffeur-driven limousines, train and air travels and stays in luxury hotels without really being the First Lady in the legal sense.

Some cynics as a matter of fact never stopped calling her France’s First Girlfriend. Now they say, “For all you know, we may soon have a second First Girlfriend.”

Till our going to press, Trierweiller was in the hospital and may stay there for another week or so. That lends credence to rising suspicions about her illness. The other sinister twist to the affair is the growing claims, as well as denials, that the apartment Julie Gayet lives in is linked with the Corsican mafia.

On Jan 14, François Hollande appeared at his traditional New Year’s press conference where some 600 local and foreign journalists as well as ministers and politicians awaited some kind of avowal. He did not deny the reports but said he was going through a difficult moment and would prefer to be left alone.

Pressed further by a foreign journalist whether Valérie Trierweiler could still be called the First Lady of France, Hollande ambiguously said he would make a public announcement about that, latest by early February. Asked by a journalist how could he be so careless as to roam about in the streets of Paris late nights on a scooter, Hollande said his security was assured every moment and that nobody need to worry about that.

The scandal of Hollande spending nights with a second girlfriend has resulted in media comments all over Europe. A British columnist tried to calm things down by suggesting: “Let’s not jump to conclusions. Julie and François could have been up all nights discussing the country’s economic crisis or, for that matter, France’s involvement in uranium mining in Niger. Or, maybe François was only helping Julie rehearse lines for her new movie.”

—The writer is a journalist based in Paris.

(ZafMasud@gmail.com)