September 16, 1957

The interesting thing about this item is that it is interesting. The Daily Mail write up involves a politician who hides his girlfriend for the sole reason of the age difference: they took up when he was 50 and she was 19. Okay, that's a gap. But we are talking about FRANCE. Where the current president is not married to his first lady, and has to deal with the public jealousy this first lady displays towards his former partner, who bore him four sons, while herself -- the earlier paramour-- pursuing a public political career. That is just context though. 

So were it not for the feline angle, today's post would be pretty tame, for a French scandal.

The story involves the French finance minister Pierre Moscovici ; (born September 16, 1957) who is living with --- a philosophy student. We like this picture of Moscovici and Marie-Charline Pacquot.



The Daily Mail elaborates under this byline: Mark Duell, 30 June 2013:

Once viewed as one of the country’s most boring politicians, this balding French finance minister is enjoying a popularity surge - thanks to his beautiful 25-year-old girlfriend.

Pierre Moscovici, 55, who has been with Marie-Charline Pacquot for five years, had feared that their three-decade age gap would result in him being seen as ‘the man in power abusing a young thing’.

But his relationship with the post-graduate philosophy student - who describes herself on Twitter as a ‘lover of… literature’ - has enhanced his image, and he admits she is his ‘lighthouse in a storm’.... Miss Pacquot appears to have bonded with Mr Moscovici over a love of literature, with the student saying they could ‘talk about books all night long’ and ‘felt very close to each other straight away’.'...

She wanted to openly discuss their bond to avoid any negative publicity, following a number of emails she received that said Mr Moscovici was ‘hiding’ her, reported The Sunday Times.

It follows the scandal last year of when President François Hollande’s girlfriend Valerie Trierweiler tweeted support for a rival of his former partner Segolene Royal in a parliamentary election...

Voila-- le chat

Back to the Daily Mail:

Miss Pacquot spoke about their bond to French newspaper Le Pays, saying she had ‘always liked being surrounded by older people’ and that they enjoy going to restaurants and watching old films.

She also revealed her affection for their Siamese cat Hamlet, about whom she often tweets. In one post she said the cat had eaten her tax return - ‘eager to revive the economy through consumption’.