TO THEIR admirers, the Sarkozys are the French Kennedys: the president loves the outdoors and athletic pursuits, the first lady is beautiful and wears designer clothes, their children are smiling and photogenic.
To their detractors, the Sarkozys are more like Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his clan: showy, vulgar, acquisitive.
Certainly, Nicolas Sarkozy's arrival at the Élysée Palace last month has already brought radical change, inc
luding what the French call the "people-isation" of the presidency.
Gone are the much older and more formal Chiracs, with their discretion, impeccable manners and easy, slow motion.
In their place is a 52-year-old president, armed with naked ambition, a hyperactive style and close friendships with some of France's richest men.
By his side - episodically - is his somewhat mysterious 49-year-old wife, Cecilia, who left him for another man in the summer of 2005 and then returned several months later. She was absent during most of the campaign and didn't bother to vote in the second and decisive round of the election. Then there are the children: two daughters (Judith, 22; Jeanne-Marie, 20) from her first marriage, two sons (Pierre, 22; Jean, 21) from his first marriage, and another (Louis, 10) whom they had together.
At least for now, some of the fiercest critics of Sarkozy are dazzled by his energy and hopeful that he will fulfil even some of his promises for reforming France quickly.
Paradoxically, the French are both ready to put the most positive spin on the first family's "normalcy" and eager to gossip about the most lurid rumours.
"They look like an ordinary French family - divorced, remarried - with all their problems out in the open," said Marie-Pierre Lannelongue, a senior editor at French Elle. "Everyone's talking about the first lady: were there suicide attempts? Why did she come back? We don't know exactly, but we want to know."
Stephane Bern, a journalist and specialist in French royalty and society, calls it the "de-sacred-isation" of the presidency, adding that he is reserving judgment over whether all this change will be for the better.
Activism is the leitmotif of this presidency. Sarkozy has been described as the lapin Duracell - the Duracell bunny - of politics.
Since taking office, he has already travelled to Berlin, Brussels and Madrid, visited a hospital in Dunkirk, eaten with workers at Airbus in Toulouse and campaigned in Normandy for upcoming parliamentary elections. He has received dozens of visitors, from union leaders to Qatar's emir. He interrupted his jogging during two trips to Bregancon, the presidential summer residence, to shake hands with the locals.
Photographers have captured his jogging in detail. One of the first iconic photographs of his presidency is of him running up the Élysée steps in Nike jogging shorts and trainers.
Sarkozy's style has translated into a historically high popularity rating. According to a poll published in last week's Le Journal du Dimanche, 65% of those questioned are "satisfied" with their new president, the highest early rating since 1958.
"Kennedy has come back," wrote Le Point. "He's named Sarkozy."
A four-page spread in the latest issue of French Elle on Cecilia Sarkozy (once an in-house model at Schiaparelli and Chanel) poses the question, "Something of Jackie?" The article ran side-by-side photos of the two first ladies, pointing out their similarities.
The conservative daily Figaro splashed an Internet poll on its front page under the headline, "The Sarkozy style seduces the French." It reported that 91% of those questioned found their new president dynamic. Only 29% thought he was too informal.
But showing off one's money is considered culturally vulgar. And if the Figaro poll is to be believed, 52% of the French believe that Sarkozy is "flashy."
His post-election mini-holiday aboard the 190-foot yacht of a billionaire friend was mercilessly criticised by both the political elite and the man on the street.
"You cannot identify with General de Gaulle and behave like Silvio Berlusconi," the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut wrote in Le Monde. He added: "For three days, he made us ashamed."
Certainly, both Sarkozys seem to resist understated, traditional dress and reject stately protocol.
On inauguration day both Sarkozys wore Prada.
Some arbiters of presidential politics and style find the Kennedy analogy far-fetched.
"Sarkozy would like nothing more than to revive the Kennedy myth, but the comparison is completely false," said Dominique Wolton, a sociologist.
"People said the same thing about Valery Giscard d'Estaing in 1974. The French people are too smart for this. The lustre will wear off."
