Le Figaro already broke the story by publishing an extensive review, but this is the week when Valérie Giscard d’Estaing’s novel La Princesse et le Président will be published in Paris. He was president of France from 1974 to 1981 and is the author of the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe, which was signed in Rome on October 29, 2004, by 53 senior political figures from the 25 member states of the European Union.
His first novel is a document of a somewhat different nature. Told in the first person singular by ex-President Henri Labertye, it is the story of his romance with Princess Patricia of Cardiff, a city – so the author explains to make it quite certain that no one misunderstands – in Wales.
It seems that there had been rumours about an affair between President Giscard and Lady Diana that this novel will do nothing to dispel. The fictional president Henri Labertye and Lady Di met at a dinner at the conclusion of an imaginary G7 meeting in Buckingham Palace. His kissed her hand and their eyes met. His head “burst into flames” and his “heart began to tremble,” he told a companion on his return to the Palais d’Elysées. Paparazzi and security agents made it almost impossible for the two to meet. But love triumphed.
Giscard is now eighty-three and will undoubtedly enjoy the additional envy, admiration and respect that this novel will inspire. Some will no doubt remember that in real life he met Princess Di in 1994 at a gala in the Royal Opera of Versailles on the occasion of The Year of the Child. The princess and all the other guests had been invited by the president’s wife, Aymone.
Book lovers are now awaiting a similar novel by Jimmy Carter.
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
