Bernadette Chirac

Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chirac, born Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel (born 18 May 1933) is a French politician and the former First Lady of France. She is married to former President Jacques Chirac.

She met Chirac while both students at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (better known as "Sciences Po"), and were married in France on 16 March 1956. They have two children: Laurence and Claude Chirac, and a Vietnamese foster-daughter, Anh Đào Traxel.

Since 2001, Bernadette has been a leading member of the "Pièces Jaunes," an organization that aids children in French hospitals by collecting small change and donating it to hospitals. She has also helped her husband being elected in 1995 and is herself an elected official in Corrèze, the couple's home "département".

Biography

Youth

Bernadette Chirac was born on May 18 1933. She was the daughter of Jean-Louis Chodron de Courcel (1907-died), a sales director, and Marguerite de Brondeau d'Urtières (1910-2000). She was the oldest of three children: her sister Catherine was born in 1946 and her brother Jérôme in 1948. She was born to a devout catholic family and received a strict education from her mother. Her father was called into the French Army in 1939 and imprisoned in Germany during the Second World War until 1945. In June 1940, she fled into exile with her mother to Lot-et-Garonne, where she attended the Sainte-Marthe school in Agen. From 1941 to 1943, after the occupation of the "zone libre", they fled again to Gien in the Loiret. There she attended Sainte-Marie-des-Fleurs-et-des-Fruits school until the return of her father in 1945. The family settled in the sixth arrondissement of Paris. She ultimately started at the Paris Institute of Political Studies in 1950 where she met her future husband but did not graduate.

Political career

* 1971: Elected to the municipal council of Sarran (Department of Corrèze).
* 1977: Aide to the mayor of Sarran.
* 1979: Elected to the Departmental council of Corrèze and subsequently re-elected on March 8 1992, on March 15 1998, and again on March 21 2004.
* 1990: Founder and president of the "Association le Pont Neuf" designed to promote exchanges between young French people and young people from Asia.
* 1991: President of an International Dance Festival.
* 1994: President of the "Fondation Hôpitaux de Paris-Hôpitaux de France", a charitable foundation aiming to improve the day-to-day lives of the children and the elderly who have been hospitalised. She also took over the direction of Opération Pièces Jaunes, an annual fundraising campaign to improve hospital conditions.

Controversies

The Château de Bity, in Corrèze, bought by the Chiracs in 1969, was declared in part a historic monument precisely a month after they acquired it.

Judicial inquiry

Bernadette Chirac is the subject of a judicial inquiry. Opened in 2003 following a civil suit by the present mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë (French socialist party), judge Philippe Courroye's inquiry concerns the 14 million Francs (about 700 euros per day) spent by the Chiracs on expenses for their official lodgings at the Paris city hall.

Genealogy

Immediate family

* Father: Jean Chodron de Courcel (1907-died ), sales director. Studied at Eton followed by Cambridge University.
* Mother: Marguerite-Marie de Brondeau d'Urtières (1910–2000)
* Paternal grandfather: Robert Chodron de Courcel, diplomat and landowner.
* Paternal great grandfather: George Chodron de Courcel (1840-1904), naval officer.

Nobility of Bernadette Chirac

Bernadette Chirac was born into an old aristocratic family of public servants, from the Trois-Évêchés. Her family includes military officers, goldsmiths, lawyers, diplomats and industrialists. They would ultimately become owners of factories in Gien and Briare, in the Loiret, which were famed for their porcelain and enamel. Like many old French families, Bernadette Chirac has several European royal families among her ancestors. In 1852, a decree by Napoleon III authorizes the addition of Courcel, one of the family's properties, to their name. In 1867, Napoleon III made Alphonse Chodron de Courcel a hereditary baron for services rendered to the State.

Bibliography

* 2001: "Bernadette Chirac" by B Meyer-Stabley (Perrin Edition)
* 2006: "La Fille de Cœur" by Anh Đào Traxel (Flammarion Editions) ISBN 2080688944 (a biography of the Chirac family by their adoptive daughter).
* 2001: "Conversations: entretiens avec Bernadette Chirac" by Patrick de Carolis, (Plon Editions)

Gallery

ources

*Translation/Ref|fr|Bernadette Chirac|oldid=13261887

External links

* [http://www.elysee.fr/elysee/francais/le_president/madame_chirac/madame_chirac.20008.html Bernadette Chirac's official page]
* [http://www.elysee.fr/elysee/elysee.fr/francais/le_president/madame_chirac/albums/les_albums_de_mme_bernadette_chirac.46409.html Official photo gallery of Bernadette Chirac]