Bernadette Chirac

Bernadette Chirac
Wife of the President of the French Republic
In office 17 May 1995 – 16 May 2007
President	Jacques Chirac
Preceded by	Danielle Mitterrand
Succeeded by	Cécilia Sarkozy
Personal details
Born	Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Coucel (1933-05-18) 18 May 1933 (age 79) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Spouse(s)	Jacques Chirac (m. 1956–present)
Relations	Claude Chirac (daughter) Martin Rey-Chirac (grandson) Anh Dao Traxel (adoptive daughter)
Residence	Quai Voltaire, Paris (personnal) Bity Castle, Sarran, Corrèze (personnal)
Religion	Roman Catholic

Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chirac (born Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel on 18 May 1933) is a French politician and the wife of the former President Jacques Chirac.

She and Chirac met 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," a charity that aids children in French hospitals by collecting small change.

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

Born in Paris on 18 May 1933, Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel was the daughter of Jean-Louis Chodron de Courcel (1907–1985), sales director of Emaux de Briare Inc., 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.

Her family was devout Catholic and she 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 1985, March 1992, March 1998, March 2004, March 2011 and again September 2011.
• 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

Chirac with Albert II and Queen Paola of Belgium, Prince Henrik of Denmark, Chirac, President Jorge Sampaio of Portugal, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush of the United States, President Arnold Rüütel of Estonia, and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines at the funeral of John Paul II.

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 (1907–1985), 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 become owners through marriages of factories in Gien and Briare, in the Loiret, which were famed for their porcelain and enamel mosaics. 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 Bertrand Meyer-Stabley (Perrin Edition) ISBN 978-2-262-01809-2
• 2006: La Fille de Cœur by Anh Đào Traxel (Flammarion Editions) ISBN 978-2-08-068894-1 (a biography of the Chirac family by their foster daughter).
• 2001: Conversation by Bernadette Chirac, with Patrick de Carolis, (Plon Editions) ISBN 978-2-259-19512-6

Sources

This article incorporates information from this version of the equivalent article on the French Wikipedia.

External links

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