I can hardly fail to have noticed the visit by Nicolas Sarkozy to London this week. Oh what a visit it was! It was initially unclear what the purpose of this visit was, it seemed like a bit of a love-in and an excuse for yet another flashy trip abroad for ‘Sarko’. It eventually culminated in a charm offensive by Sarkozy calling for an ‘entente fraternelle’; a closer working relationship between the UK and France than previously enjoyed under the ‘entente cordialle’.

It is debatable whether ‘Sarko’ had really intended the focus of his visit to be his new wife, Carla Bruni, but as far as our papers, particularly the tabloids, were concerned she was the main attraction. ‘Part Grace Kelly, part Jackie Kennedy, part Princess Diana’, the charmante Carla Bruni gracefully stepped into our green and pleasant land in her little black pumps and we found ourselves collectively seduced by her, rather than by the French President himself, as was perhaps intended.

Or was it?

Amanda Platell writing for Daily Mail praised Bruni’s choice of outfit and contrasted it to Camilla’s less than stylish look, which she jokingly referred to as ‘road-kill’. By the way, how many times in her life is that poor woman going to be compared to another, more conventionally beautiful woman? Nobody’d blame her for having a bit of an inferiority complex. But on this occasion the comparison was especially poignant in light of the French President’s apparent wish for his wife to be the ‘new Diana’. And so it was: The International Herald Tribune ran the headline ‘The New Diana? In Britain, Carla steals the show’ on Thursday.

However this bizarre Sarkozy’s aspiration may be, our reaction to this particular attractive woman dressed beautifully in designer clothing was much the same as it was for Diana; we can’t get enough. But how was our reaction seen in France? ‘Londres craque pour Carla’ (roughly translated as: ‘London goes nuts for Carla’) was the headline in Le Monde on Saturday. However, on the whole my brief scan of the French press today found few articles similar to our gushing praise of Mme. Sarkozy. Our excitement was acknowledged, but rather disdainfully, since the couple are not viewed quite so fondly in France; their whirlwind romance is seen by many as a distraction from the proper business of politics. The Nouvel Obs discussed Gordon Brown and Sarkozy’s plans to ‘change the world’ at length, with only a passing reference to Carla, mentioning that ‘the UK won’t be forgetting [the President's] wife Carla in a hurry’, that she was ‘watched constantly’.

Indeed, the French press seem to be concentrating more on the content and implications of Sarkozy’s speech and exchanges with Gordon Brown. I’m guessing that Sarkozy’s recent poor showing in French polls has been focussing French minds a little more, and on substance over style. Having enjoyed the luxuries of the royal palace, far from the scrutinies of his own press, I imagine it may be a rather bumpy return to earth on his return to France.