Is a president’s private life anyone’s affair?

AN illicit love affair is so quintessentially French that revelations of President François Hollande’s clandestine meetings with Julie Gayet have been greeted by the French with a shrug.

The term cinq à sept (the hours between 5pm and 7pm) was coined to describe a visit by a gentleman to his mistress.

The Elysée palace — France’s president’s workplace — has been the venue for much hanky-panky. In 1899, President Felix Faure died there in the arms of his mistress, Marguerite Steinheil. Le président was allegedly in pursuit of what may blushingly be described as le petit mort, and his mistress was assisting.