François Bayrou: who is Elisabeth, the woman who has shared his life for over 50 years?

From the town hall of Pau to the hustle and bustle of Matignon. After the censorship of Michel Barnier’s government, Emmanuel Macron chose François Bayrou to be his Prime Minister. The president of Modem is working on forming his government and will have to tackle the 2025 state budget without delay. At the same time, he decided to remain mayor of Pau and president of the urban area. He will therefore make regular return trips between Paris and Béarn.

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Since his beginnings in politics, François Bayrou has been supported by his wife. She has been an unwavering supporter of the new Prime Minister for over 50 years. Who is she?

A “love at first sight” meeting

François Bayrou and Elisabeth Perlant met at the beginning of the 1970s. François Bayrou left the family farm in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques to follow a hypokhâgne and khâgne prep school before joining the classics faculty at the University of Bordeaux. He falls in love with Elisabeth at first sight. “What I remember were first of all her legs, straight, beautiful fine ties. Then her face. I said to myself: This girl, she is for me”, he says in the book by Rodolphe Geisler “Bayrou the Obstinate” published in 2012. Five months after their meeting, François married “Babeth” in 1971. They were barely 20 years old.

She was a literature teacher

François and Elisabeth Bayrou continued their studies and chose the same profession: literature teacher. Three years later, at 23, François Bayrou obtained his aggregation. That year, François Bayrou’s father died accidentally when he fell from a hay wagon. It was then that François Bayrou took his first steps in politics.

Six children, 21 grandchildren

The couple had six children: Hélène born in 1972, Marie in 1973, Dominique in 1977, Calixte in 1982, Agnès in 1986 and André in 1988. Elisabeth Bayrou ended her teaching career after the birth of the third child couple. The Bayrou couple’s six children all had brilliant studies:

• Hélène is a khâgne teacher
• Marie is a polytechnician
• Dominique is a doctor
• Calixte is a veterinarian and teacher-researcher
• Agnès has a doctorate in political science.
• André is an associate professor of classics.

François and Elisabeth Bayrou are the happy grandparents of 21 grandchildren.

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Discreet and far from the spotlight

Elisabeth Bayrou prefers to remain discreet. The couple lives on their property in Bordères, a town located between Pau and Lourdes. They practice agriculture and breed thoroughbred horses there. “All that is not very interesting to me. I would prefer that my husband raised sheep. That way, I could take care of them”, she said in the book “Bayrou the obstinate”. She rarely accompanied François Bayrou in front of the cameras. The first time was during his campaign for the presidential election of 2002. Or even for the campaign for the municipal elections in Pau in 2014.

A woman of character

François Bayrou spoke about Babeth in the show “Cinq ans avec” on M6 in 2007. “She helps me by talking to me, by thinking, and that is a precious asset for me,” he said. In Gala this time, he explained: “She often considers the political world to be light and lacking in depth. She thinks it too often resembles the playground. But the political question interests her. We discuss it every day.” Still on M6 in 2007, François Bayrou confided about his wife: “She likes that I am virile, that I assume my place as a man in the house.”