EMMANUEL MACRON
He’s 39, She’s 64: The Odd Couple p Who Could be Running France
But the man who could become the frontrunner for the biggestgg jjob in the countryy if he wins the first round of the ppresidential election this Sundayy is also known byy another name: “chouchou”. It translates as “teacher’s ppet”. Agedg 39 Emmanuel Macron is handsome and intelligentg and as well as makingg ppolitical headlines is also, alongg with his gglamorous, chic wife Brigitteg Trogneux,g a frequentq cover star of France’s most stylishy magazines.g
So whyy the nickname? It comes from the fact that wife Brigitteg is not onlyy 25 yearsy older than Macron – but that she used to be his high-school teacher.
The ppair met when Macron was 15 and a pupilpp at the Jésuites de la Providence school in Amiens, northern France. Madame Trogneuxg – then known as Brigitteg Auzière – was his literature teacher and ran the theatre club. She was also a 40-year-yold married mother of three – one of her daughtersg was even in his class.
Macron qquicklyy made an impressionp on his teacher. “In class she alwaysy used him as an example,”p recalled a former ppupil.p “He wrote poems all the time and she read them out.”
Romance blossomed the followingg yyear when the ppair worked on a school play. “Writing brought us together,” Brigitteg later said.
“It unleashed an incredible closeness. We wrote and little byy little I was totallyy charmed byy his intelligence.g He wasn’t like the others. “Nobodyy will ever know at what moment our storyy became a love story. That belongsg to us. That is our secret.”
The ppair met when Macron was 15 and a pupil at the Jésuites de la Providence school in Amiens
Macron’s pparents, however, were not so enthralled – when he confided that he had feelingsg for a member of the Auzière family naturally they assumed he meant Brigitte’sg daughter.g She spendsp all her time beside him He asks her qquestions and takes her advice When the truth emergedg – that he was in love with her mother – they promptly sent him to finish his studies in