Few would say that Emmanuel Macron is on vacation. Despite having installed at the end of July in Fort Brégançon, the traditional summer residence of the presidents of France on a fantastic islet on the Côte d'Azur, the French president has had to interrupt his vacation constantly this summer, and not only for Coronavirus: The devastating explosion in Beirut on August 4 prompted Macron to make several calls to various Lebanese and international leaders and set off on a whirlwind visit to the Lebanese capital. Just a few days later, he organized from the so-called Summer Elysium the international donor conference with counterparts from around the world that pledged more than 250 million euros in emergency aid for the troubled Mediterranean country.
If you thought you could rest now, you were wrong. The murder, on the same Sunday that Macron dedicated to helping Lebanon, of six French aid workers in Niger, allegedly at the hands of jihadists, shocked the country and its leader, who this week convened a defense council to analyze the situation in the Sahel. And of course, there is the coronavirus, with an evident rebound in France that has the Government very concerned and that has also forced it - and probably will continue to do so - to hold telematic meetings with its ministers in the field.
Despite this, Macron is managing to scrape some time to rest and pursue his favorite hobbies. Like jet skis. Voici magazine has published on its cover this week a photo of the French president piloting his own motorcycle, wearing only a swimsuit and life jacket, under the headline "Alert in Brégançon", in a pun with "Alert in Malibu", as France is known in American popular summer series Bay Watch ( the Baywatch ). On the inside pages, it is discovered that Macron shares this passion for watercraft - it is the third year he has been "caught" on a jet ski - with his wife, Brigitte, and two of her daughters, Tiphaine and Laurence, accompanied by their respective stems. The president “seemed happy. He even made magnificent skids and splashed his bodyguards, one after another, ”a witness told the magazine, whose photos have created quite a lot of hype on social networks and in some media. In fact, the magazine Valeurs Actuels recalls when commenting on the news that on his vacation in the same place in 2018, "the President of the Republic violated an ordinance of the Mediterranean maritime prefecture when traveling by jet ski through a protected marine reserve", although now it seems to have learned and only sails in permitted waters.
Despite constant interruptions for national or international political reasons, the Macron have enjoyed a few other moments of calm, several of them, although very few, captured on camera. The presidential couple know that they can count on the most absolute privacy in Fort Brégançon, which Macron recovered as the summer residence of the head of government: her predecessor, François Hollande, who detested it, had opened it to the public. The new tenants of the Elysee have had a swimming pool built on the grounds, inaccessible due to its form of a fort on an island with only one access by land to the prying cameras of the paparazzi .
Even so, it is lavished from time to time around the popular holiday area on the Côte d'Azur, rare moments that nevertheless ensure that they are picked up by the local press or, if there is no other way, the heart. Thus, this summer, just before the disaster in Beirut, the Macrons were seen in the nearby town of Lavandou, where they enjoyed a pizza in a restaurant they already know from previous years.
“They ordered pizza and stayed for two or three hours, with great simplicity. They had a nice time and were very nice to all the staff, as they usually do. It is always a pleasure to receive the president and his wife, "the owner of the premises told the regional daily Nice-Matin the next day . What was different this year: the now traditional photo with the restaurant staff, in which the president, the first lady and the restoration team posed with masks, as these times of pandemic require. Before Beirut upset everything, Macron also had time to have a coffee on the terrace of a bar with the mayor of Bormes-les-Mimosas, François Arizzi, and to greet - with a mask and keeping his distance, doing the “greeting Buddhist ”, as Var Matin describes it - to the public that quickly gathered to see the president.
Will there be more presidential "sightings"? Sure, but not many. Macron, who according to official sources told Var Matin continues to attend to the various issues that occupy him "between eight and ten hours a day", has a heavy agenda before him before the end of the summer: according to various publications, Macron will receive the German Chancellor , Angela Merkel, in Brégançon “around” August 20. The president also has to prepare the ambitious economic recovery plan of 100,000 million euros, which his government plans to present on August 25. And on September 1, he has promised that he will return to Beirut to take a look at the situation in a country plunged in its worst economic and political crisis that is very close to France.