French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew in to the Egyptian city of Luxor on Tuesday aboard a private jet accompanied by his new love, ex-supermodel Carla Bruni, to spend Christmas on the banks of the Nile.
French billionaire Vincent Bollore provided the plane that brought Sarkozy, Bruni and nine others from Paris to the pharaonic splendour of Luxor, where the recently divorced Sarkozy was to relax for a few days ahead of an official visit on December 30.
The group boarded in a private hangar in Paris to avoid prying lenses, while paparazzi awaited the couple in Luxor to compete for the first shots of the pair, perhaps during a felucca boat ride on the Nile at sunset. Egyptian security forces were deployed discreetly around the town, and a French journalist and cameraman were briefly detained overnight by police for filming the couple's hotel. Sarko, as he is known by both supporters and opponents, will be staying in a 1,100 dollar (760 euro) a night suite in the Victorian elegance of Luxor's Old Winter Palace hotel on the east bank of the Nile, an Egyptian source said.
Council workers were seen on Monday giving a fresh lick of paint to the riverside opposite the hotel, with the town thronged by foreign tourists spending Christmas in the balmy winter air of southern Egypt.
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