Dressed casually and riding in a 26-car motorcade, French president Nicolas Sarkozy left his hotel in the Egyptian historic site of Luxor and visited the Valley of the Kings with his new girlfriend ex-supermodel Carla Bruni. Nicolas took a stroll through the Egypt’s spectacular Valley of the Kings on Wednesday, hand-in-hand with his new lover.
The couple giggled and whispered together like a pair of teenage sweethearts as they toured the tombs of the pharaohs near the city of Luxor surrounded by paparazzi.
Italian-born Bruni, 39, was dressed in black trousers and top and wore one of Sarkozy’s white shirts bearing his initials on the breast pocket, while he opted for a pair of jeans and green patterned shirt. Recently divorced Sarkozy flew into Egypt on Tuesday where he will relax for a few days ahead of an official visit on December 30. Flanked by bodyguards, the pair smiled and waved to onlookers and took time to chat to some local Egyptians.
Sarkozy will be staying in a $1,100-a-night suite in the Victorian elegance of the Old Winter Palace on the east bank of the Nile, an Egyptian source said. Hordes of photographers and cameramen followed the motorcade at a distance as it wended its way from the Winter Palace Hotel through the town before arriving at the Valley of the Kings. The press, however, were prevented from entering the site where Sarkozy and Bruni climbed into small electric cars to tour the sight.
Sarkozy then went on to visit the Ramesseum temple on the west bank of the Nile which is being restored by French experts. His party then returned to the hotel for a rest before taking a floating lunch aboard a Nile boat, with plans to visit the immense temple of Karnak in the afternoon.
The French embassy in Cairo has declined to reveal any details of Sarkozy’s trip, saying only the visit was a private one. An official visit of the French leader would start next Monday, when Sarkozy and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak are to hold talks, the embassy said.
Sarkozy and Bruni first surfaced as a couple earlier this month in French media on a visit to Disneyland Paris and two months after the French president’s divorce from his wife of 11 years, Cecilia. The longtime model Bruni, 39 and an Italian-born French citizen, won critical and public acclaim for her first folk album in 2003, singing in a raspy, whispery voice. She has dated a range of famous men, including Mick Jagger and Donald Trump, and has also reportedly been linked to singer Eric Clapton and actor Vincent Perez.
Sarkozy, 52, often put his private and family life on display for the media but bristled at the interest in his tempestuous relationship with Cecilia, his second marriage.