CAIRO: French President Nicolas Sarkozy was flying to 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 flew Sarkozy, Bruni and nine others from Paris to the pharaonic splendor of Luxor, where the recently divorced Sarkozy was to relax for a few days ahead of an official visit on Dec. 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, although a French journalist and cameraman were briefly detained overnight by police for filming the hotel.
Sarko, as he is known by both supporters and opponents, will be staying in a $ 1,100 (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.
Sarkozy is expected also to be accompanied by one of his sons, his fiancee and his mother.
The president is due to fly to the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Thursday, before traveling to Cairo on his first official Middle Eastern visit for talks with President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday.
However, almost all media attention is focused on Sarkozy s relationship with Bruni, who turned 39 on Sunday, heiress to a tyre fortune whose former boyfriends include rock stars Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton.
The use of the tycoon s plane to fly the president to Egypt will also draw media attention after Bollore, one of France s richest men, took Sarkozy on a big-budget holiday to Malta soon after his election in May.
At the time, both Bollore and Sarkozy – whose friendship goes back 20 years – denied accusations of a conflict of interest, saying Bollore s business and media empire had no dealings with the French state.
Culture Minister Faruq Hosni, who is seeking to become the new boss of Paris-based Unesco, will be helping the presidential family push through the tourists to visit the ancient tombs on the Nile s west bank.
After Luxor, the presidential delegation will travel to Sharm el-Sheikh on the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula to be joined by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner behind the high walls of a luxury villa.
The property has its own private beach and security will remain tight given the possibility of roving photographers in speedboats. Sharm was also the site of a 2005 terrorist bombing that killed 65 people.
His holidays over, Sarkozy travels to Cairo on December 30 where he will head a 200-strong French delegation for a 24-hour official visit, before heading back to Paris to see in the New Year.
