Take A Smoke Break, Carla!

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy gives birth to girl

When we lasted checked in on Carla, she was pining for a smoke and a stiff drink, denied to her by her pregnancy with her second kid.  Well, her nicotine fits a sobriety are over.  Today at 7:30 PM Paris time, Carla popped out the package.

France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy gave birth to the first French presidential baby on Wednesday night.

The child, a girl, had been expected for a fortnight, and was born at the La Muette private clinic in the chic 16th arrondissement of Paris.

Well done Carla, have that smoke and a sip on us.  And since you may well be out of the public limelight for a while (especially if you get your way), this is my best chance to use up the miscellaneous pictures of you I've collected.

Not a lot of milk here!

President Nicolas Sarkozy was reported to have flown back from Germany, where he was having urgent talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel about saving the euro, to see his newborn daughter.

According to French reports she was born around 7.30pm on Wednesday evening. No further details were released. It is first child to be born to a serving French president.

Europe 1 radio said Bruni-Sarkozy, 43, was doing well after the birth. It is her second child – she has a son from an earlier relationship – while Sarkozy, 57, has three boys from two previous marriages.

The birth will come as a relief to long-suffering residents around La Muette in the upmarket 16th arrondissement of Paris.

Meanwhile, Nick will be off, hobnobbing with the heads of Europe.  A tedious job, but somebody has to do it.  Maybe he'll even win re-election (though, honestly, why would anyone want the job - Oh, that's right, the chicks!)

Police sealed off the roads around the clinic at the beginning of the month and security has been tight ever since. As the days passed speculation turned feverish, not to mention fantastic, with false alerts including Twitter reports that the baby had already been born, and was a boy named Vadim.

"It's been a fortnight that the area has been packed with police officers and paparazzi," one local complained.

Bruni-Sarkozy will also be pleased to finally given birth, given her recent confession that she was bored by pregnancy and anxious to "get it over with" so she could have a drink and a cigarette.

And we'll remember you for what you used to be, heiress, supermodel, and rock star.

Maggie links this post in her paen to curvy girls. And as always, I thank the Wombat at The Other McCain's for assembling his large weekly collection of Rule 5 posts.  The Classical Liberal picks it up to, in his Rule 5 sweep.