Carla Bruni brings glamour, uncertainty to Elysee

By Crispian Balmer

PARIS (Reuters) - Don't expect her to open flower shows or host coffee mornings, do expect her to party until dawn and appear on the front cover of the world's glossy magazines.

The Italian-born Carla Bruni, who married President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday, looks certain to be an unconventional first lady and faces a testing time if she wants to win over the heart of a sceptical France.

A feline star of the catwalk turned celebrated chanteuse, Bruni brings undoubted glamour to the opulent Elysee Palace and marks a complete break with the wives of many previous presidents, who were often remote and discreet matrons.

But the supersonic speed, and non-stop media coverage, of their romance, has raised hackles even in liberal France.

Barely eight months after winning office, four months after a painful divorce and three months after first meeting Bruni, Sarkozy now has a third wife -- and a second first lady.

He is 53, she is 40. He is a right winger with a reputation as a tough upholder of law and order, she is a Socialist voter who demonstrated last year against his immigration policy.

"I can't believe it is real. It must be a show. It has all gone too fast and I don't think she understands what she has let herself in for," said Christelle Wolf, a 32-year-old Parisian walking past the Louvre museum on Sunday morning.

"As first lady of France she will be locked up in the Elysee and she won't accept it. She is too libertine to be tied down."