"First Spouse" in France

I just loved this story on the changing role of First Lady in France. Can you imagine the wife of a presidential candidate in the US saying, "I don’t see myself as a first lady. That bores me."??? And the female candidate's partner (not husband!) is head of the party, a job he plans to keep even if she's elected. Stunning. Really makes it clear how archaic our society's attitudes are. Here's the link and an excerpt:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/world/europe/27france.html
April 27, 2007
NY Times
A ‘First Spouse’ in France? Not Any Time Soon
By ELAINE SCIOLINO

PARIS, April 26 — No matter who wins the presidency of France on May 6, life in the grand, presidential Élysée Palace is destined to change. There is no future for the role of dutiful partner filled for the past dozen years by Bernadette Chirac, who as first lady has run charities, held dinners and served as a local official in the farming town of Corrèze. Both presidential candidates are members of unconventional couples.

Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party candidate, is not married to the father of her four children, François Hollande. But more than that, they are political rivals. As head of the Socialist Party, he was nearly the candidate himself, and says he will try to run in 2012 if Ms. Royal loses this time.
This is not Bill-and-Hillary in 1992, when Bill Clinton told the American people they would be getting “two for the price of one,” pledging that Mrs. Clinton would be a full-time policy-making partner, and perhaps even a cabinet member, in his presidency.

Cécilia Sarkozy, 49, the wife of the front-runner and conservative candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been largely absent from the campaign. Asked how she envisioned her life in 10 years, she replied, “In the United States, jogging in Central Park."

"I don’t see myself as a first lady,” she said on a popular French television show. “That bores me. I am not politically correct.”