Sarkozy Helped Get Paris Shop Open On Sunday For Michelle Obama

Who ratted out First Lady Michelle Obama for getting VIP treatment while shopping in Paris last month with her daughters? That would be French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The issue: Getting a store usually closed on Sundays to open for her.

The cautious Mrs. Obama, who carries a limited, strategically applied issues portfolio, is now caught up--unwittingly--in a domestic debate in France over Sunday closing laws.

Sarkozy is using Mrs. Obama's June visit with her daughters and mother as an example of why France needs to change laws that keep most retail outlets closed on Sunday.


"Is it normal that when Mrs. Obama and her daughters, on a Sunday, want to go shopping in Paris stores, I have to make a call to get the shops to open?" Sarkozy said in a Tuesday speech in the Paris suburb of La Defense, according to the Bloomberg News account.

"All the Obama supporters were there. Who is going to explain to them why France is the only country where shops are closed on Sundays?"

AFP reported that Sarkoky said "he personally authorized the opening of shops" during Mrs. Obama's visit.

'We are going to deal with the problem before the summer,'' Sarkozy said in the AFP story.

The French parliament's lower house will be debating as soon as next week a proposal to allow Sunday sales in some tourist areas.

'We must be reasonable... Is it absolutely necessary that the shops are open at times and on days when people cannot do their shopping?' Sarkoky said. 'It's not about saying that everyone is going to work on Sunday, I have never said that.''

After lunching with Sarkozy and his wife in the Elysee Palace on June 7, Mrs. Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha headed to Bonpoint, an upscale, pricey child's couture retailer. The store is usually closed on Sunday.

Sarkozy said he made calls, but there were more contacts involved; Bloomberg News and the New York Daily News reported the U.S. Embassy also intervened, asking the store to open so the First Lady could shop.

Bloomberg interviewed Bonpoint's head of communication Benedicte Perrot, who confirmed the U.S. Embassy called to make the Sunday shopping request. Perrot told Bloomberg Mrs. Obama and her daughters were in the store for an hour, but did not say what they bought.

Mrs. Obama's press secretary, Catherine McCormick Lelyveld, declined to comment.