Bernadette Chirac
Encyclopedia
Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chirac (born Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel on 18 May 1933) is a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and the wife of the former President Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
.
She and Chirac met while both students at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (better known as Sciences Po), and were married in France on 16 March 1956. They have two children: Laurence and Claude Chirac
Claude Chirac
Claude Chirac, , younger daughter of French president Jacques Chirac, has been her father's personal advisor since 1994.She has been involved with French judoka Thierry Rey, who is the father of her son Martin Rey-Chirac....
, and a Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese foster-daughter, Anh Đào Traxel
Anh Dao Traxel
Anh Dao Traxel is the foster daughter of former French President Jacques Chirac. She was a boat people refugee, and met Jacques Chirac at Roissy Airport in 1979. He told her "Don’t cry, ma chérie. You are coming home with us" and took her home...
.
Since 2001, Bernadette has been a leading member of the "Pièces Jaunes," a charity that aids children in French hospitals by collecting small change.
She has also helped her husband being elected in 1995 and is herself an elected official in Corrèze
Corrèze
Corrèze is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.-History:...
, the couple's home département.
Youth
Bernadette Chirac was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
on 18 May 1933. She was the daughter of Jean-Louis Chodron de Courcel (1907–1985), sales director of Emaux de Briare
Emaux de Briare
Emaux de Briare is a French company specializing today in mosaics. Whilst the manufactory in Briare originally started with earthenware pottery, the factory founded in Paris by Jean-Félix Bapterosses initially began manufacturing porcelain buttons in 1845...
Inc., and Marguerite de Brondeau d'Urtières (1910–2000). She was the oldest of three children: her sister Catherine was born in 1946 and her brother Jérôme in 1948.
She was born to a devout catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
family and received a strict education from her mother. Her father was called into the French Army in 1939 and imprisoned in Germany during the Second World War until 1945. In June 1940, she fled into exile with her mother to Lot-et-Garonne
Lot-et-Garonne
Lot-et-Garonne is a department in the southwest of France named after the Lot and Garonne rivers.-History:Lot-et-Garonne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
, where she attended the Sainte-Marthe school in Agen
Agen
Agen is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in Aquitaine in south-western France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. It is the capital of the department.-Economy:The town has a higher level of unemployment than the national average...
. From 1941 to 1943, after the occupation of the zone libre, they fled again to Gien
Gien
Gien is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France.Gien is on the Loire River, from Orléans. The town was bought for the royal property by Philip II of France. The town is twinned with Malmesbury in England.-Sights:*Faience de Gien...
in the Loiret
Loiret
Loiret is a department in north-central FranceThe department is named after the river Loiret, a tributary of the Loire. The Loiret is located wholly within the department.- History :...
. There she attended Sainte-Marie-des-Fleurs-et-des-Fruits school until the return of her father in 1945. The family settled in the sixth arrondissement of Paris. She ultimately started at the Paris Institute of Political Studies in 1950 where she met her future husband but did not graduate.
Political career
- 1971: Elected to the municipal council of SarranSarranSarran is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France.It is the home of the Jacques Chirac presidential museum.-Population:-References:*...
(Department of CorrèzeCorrèzeCorrèze is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.-History:...
). - 1977: Aide to the mayorMayorIn many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Sarran. - 1979: Elected to the Departmental council of CorrèzeCorrèzeCorrèze is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.-History:...
and subsequently re-elected on March 1985, March 1992, March 1998, March 2004, March 2011 and again September 2011. - 1990: Founder and president of the "Association le Pont Neuf" designed to promote exchanges between young French people and young people from Asia.
- 1991: President of an International Dance Festival.
- 1994: President of the "Fondation Hôpitaux de Paris-Hôpitaux de France", a charitable foundation aiming to improve the day-to-day lives of the children and the elderly who have been hospitalised. She also took over the direction of Opération Pièces Jaunes, an annual fundraising campaign to improve hospital conditions.
Controversies
The Château de Bity, in CorrèzeCorrèze
Corrèze is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.-History:...
, bought by the Chiracs in 1969, was declared in part a historic monument precisely a month after they acquired it.
Judicial inquiry
Bernadette Chirac is the subject of a judicial inquiry. Opened in 2003 following a civil suit by the present mayorMayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë
Bertrand Delanoë
Bertrand Delanoë is a French politician, and has been the mayor of Paris since 2001. He is member of the Socialist Party . Delanoë was born in Tunis, Tunisia to a French-Tunisian father and a French mother...
(French socialist party), judge Philippe Courroye's inquiry concerns the 14 million Francs (about 700 euros per day) spent by the Chiracs on expenses for their official lodgings at the Paris city hall
City hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall or a municipal building or civic centre, is the chief administrative building of a city...
.
Immediate family
- Father: Jean Chodron de Courcel (1907-1985), sales director. Studied at EtonEton CollegeEton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
followed by Cambridge University. - Mother: Marguerite-Marie de Brondeau d'Urtières (1910–2000)
- Paternal grandfather: Robert Chodron de Courcel, diplomat and landowner.
- Paternal great grandfather: George Chodron de Courcel (1840–1904), naval officer.
Nobility of Bernadette Chirac
Bernadette Chirac was born into an old aristocratic family of public servants, from the Trois-Évêchés. Her family includes military officers, goldsmiths, lawyers, diplomats and industrialists. They would become owners through marriages of factories in GienGien
Gien is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France.Gien is on the Loire River, from Orléans. The town was bought for the royal property by Philip II of France. The town is twinned with Malmesbury in England.-Sights:*Faience de Gien...
and Briare
Briare
Briare is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France.Briare, the Brivodorum of the Romans, is situated at the extremity of the Briare Canal, which unites the Loire and its lateral canal with the Loing and so with the Seine. The lateral canal of the Loire crosses the Loire near...
, in the Loiret
Loiret
Loiret is a department in north-central FranceThe department is named after the river Loiret, a tributary of the Loire. The Loiret is located wholly within the department.- History :...
, which were famed for their porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
and enamel
Vitreous enamel
Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...
mosaics. Like many old French families, Bernadette Chirac has several European royal families among her ancestors. In 1852, a decree by Napoleon III authorizes the addition of Courcel, one of the family's properties, to their name. In 1867, Napoleon III made Alphonse Chodron de Courcel a hereditary baron for services rendered to the State.