She has shared the life of the president of the MoDem since 1971. Having just arrived in Matignon to succeed Michel Barnier whose government was overthrown on December 4, François Bayrou can count on the unwavering support of his wife and mother of his six children Elizabeth.
It was on the benches of the University in the early 70s that the couple meets for the first time. Originally from a family of farmers, François Bayrou has just left his native countryside to follow a hypokhâgne and khâgne prep school before join the faculty of classics at the University of Bordeaux. There it was love at first sight. “What I remember, first of all, were her legs, straight, beautiful fine ties. Then his face. I said to myself: “This girl, she is for me””, explained the president of MoDem in the biography Bayrou the stubborn by Rodolphe Geisler published in 2012.
In 1971, just five months after their meeting, François Bayrou and Élisabeth Perlant, nicknamed “Babeth” married. They are barely 20 years old. And for 53 years, they have never left. Once they graduate, they choose to follow the same path and become literature teachers. He obtained his aggregation three years later, before beginning his political career.
An environment that Elisabeth does not wish to frequent more than necessary, preferring her “freedom” as Rodolphe Geisler explains in his work: “She hates worldly affairs. Since her husband was deputy for Pau, that is to say for more than 25 years, Babeth has always, with the same constancy, refused to go to a dinner of notables in town. […] At most, she agrees to make a brief appearance on her husband’s arm during each presidential election.
“I would prefer my husband to raise sheep”
Far from the cameras, she prefers the tranquility of Pau and the small village of Bordères, a town of 700 inhabitants located only a few kilometers away. There, the couple owns a large property in which they practice agriculture and horse breedingmuch to the chagrin of Elisabeth. “This passion of my husband can be expensive. The world of racing is also that of billionaires, that is to say those who can afford to lose money. All this is not very interesting to me. I would prefer my husband to raise sheep. That way, I could take care of it,” she confided in Bayrou the stubborn.
53 years of living together and 6 children
Together, they had six children: Hélène, Marie, Dominique, Calixte, Agnès and André. It was after the birth of the little third Dominique, that the wife of the mayor of Pau ended her teaching career. Often far from each other, François Bayrou being frequently on business trips, the couple calls each other on the phone several times a day.
“The fact that I had to live half the week 850 km from home was not a handicap, but an asset. Without that, she might not have put up with me for so long!” declared the current Prime Minister at Gala a few years ago.
“She often sees the political world as light and lacking in depth. She thinks it feels like the playground too often. But the political question interests him. We discuss it every day,” he continued. There is no doubt that with her recent appointment, Élisabeth will provide good advice.
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