The Americans in Paris

Michelle Obama's visit this weekend to Paris will no doubt bring out dusty recollections of Jackie Kennedy's successful trip to La Ville-Lumière in 1961 when the recently installed first lady charmed Charles DeGaulle and the citizens of France simply by dressing well and speaking French. Mrs. Obama, also known for her fashion sense, has her own skills and talents, but the bar has been raised since the 1960s, and the French now have a first lady who takes showmanship into a whole different league.

A self-made bohemian, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, the Italian-born model and singer wife of France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, told Le Figaro Madame last year "Monogamy bores me terribly. ... I prefer polygamy and polyandry." Her colorful sexual history rivals that of her native country's current premier Silvio Berlusconi, whose wife recently walked out over the 72-year-old media baron's alleged relationship with an 18-year-old model. Carla's well publicized love life includes rockers Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, whose own marriage blew up over his relationship with Carla, then in her 20s. More recently she was rumored to have had serial affairs with father and son Jean Paul and Raphael Enthoven.

Michelle Obama, more straight-laced than her Paris counterpart, puts great store in fidelity and rectitude. Though the two presidential wives were photographed together at the NATO summit in Strasbourg this spring, Mr. and Mrs. Obama may not want to become couple friends with Carla and Nicolas. The American visitors have declined the Sarkozys' overtures to dine together during the trip.