CARLA Bruni-Sarkozy, the first lady of France, looked out of the window of her 13-seat military jet as it touched down in Burkino Faso, spotted the red carpet and receiving party awaiting her, and suddenly realised what she was wearing.
"Oh, I'm in jeans!" she said. "Well, at least they don't look like jeans."
The 20-hour visit of the Italian-born singer, heiress and ex-model to one of the poorest countries in the world marked her debut as a goodwill ambassador, a personal experi
ment in burnishing her image and projecting the soft power of France.
A year after her marriage to President Nicolas Sarkozy catapulted her into the role of first lady, Bruni-Sarkozy said she had decided to "do something useful," signing on with the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria last December as its first formal celebrity envoy.
She visited a hospital, a medical centre for women and the presidential palace in this West African country, as her hosts sought to capitalise on her star quality for a humanitarian cause, without being capsized by it.
"There is always too much fuss about what I'm doing, you know," Bruni-Sarkozy said during an interview after the whirlwind tour, snuffing out one of several menthol Vogue cigarettes in a nearly empty glass of beer.
In private, Bruni-Sarkozy has no trouble making down-to-earth small talk: that Daniel Craig is good-looking but Sean Connery will go down as the best James Bond; how some of her friends have become paranoid that their phone conversations with her are monitored by French intelligence officers; how women over 25 – 28 at the latest – should stop wearing make-up because it ages them; how she longs to have a child with Sarkozy, but knows that at age 41, she is "just at the edge".
In the past year, Bruni-Sarkozy's approval ratings have risen to more than double those of the president. After initial condemnation by the French, who criticised the public and glitzy nature of their romance and marriage just over 11 weeks after their first meeting, and three-and-a-half months after Sarkozy's divorce from his second wife, things turned in her favour.
The image of a demure wife in a grey midcalf coatdress and matching pillbox hat curtsying before the Queen replaced that of the sex-crazed foreigner with nude photos on the internet and Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton in her past.
"For the French, she finally appeared elegant and respectful of the unwritten code that says the first lady should not overshadow the president," said Stephane Rozes, the director of the polling group CSA.
Indeed, Bruni-Sarkozy is credited with quietly calming down her high-octane husband. She said she has helped cure his migraines by persuading him to stop eating refined sugar and to break his chocolate addiction. She has also tried to curb his fits of anger. "A lot of people are scared of him, not just because of his position, but because of his temper," she said.
Committed to continuing her career as a singer and songwriter, she produced a third CD last summer, with songs featuring lyrics like, "I am a child/despite my 40 years/despite my 30 lovers, a child."
She still takes her son Aurelien, from a previous relationship, to the neighbourhood state school and makes him lunch at home every day.
She is planning to use some of her personal fortune – as well as raise other private-sector funds – to start what she will probably call the Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Foundation. It will finance scholarships and cultural centres for underprivileged young people living there.
In Ouagadougou, another Carla was on display. Bruni-Sarkozy, whose older brother Virginio died of Aids three years ago, toured an outpatient hospital where patients are tested and treated for HIV.
She visited a centre where mothers receive pre- and post-natal care for infectious diseases. She exchanged what were described as "pleasantries" with the country's president and first lady in the Oriental-carpeted presidential palace.
At times, Bruni-Sarkozy clung with both hands to her vinyl Prada handbag, taking only a few notes and shaking only a few hands. She seemed unaware that the trousers of her Franck Namani suit were so long that they swept the red dirt of the unpaved roads.
The most poignant moment came when she stepped into a stark room with dirty walls, with four severely malnourished babies, two of them HIV-positive. "Hello, are things getting better?" she asked their mothers.
Dr Michel Kazatchkine, the executive director of the Global Fund, which gives about $2.5bn a year to more than 135 countries, urged journalists to keep the focus more on the projects, less on the messenger. "This is not about a show-business star here," he said.
