PARIS, Aug. 13 — Three weeks ago, C?cilia Sarkozy, the glamorous wife of the French president, drew criticism here for her high-profile role in the freeing of jailed medical workers from Libya, a job some thought was best left to diplomats. Now Mrs. Sarkozy, a 49-year-old former model, is under scrutiny again, this time for ducking out of public appearances where a presidential spouse would be expected.
Her latest infraction of spousal etiquette: skipping a picnic with the Bush family in New England.
After accepting a rare, personal invitation to dine with President Bush and his family in Kennebunkport, Me., on Saturday, Mrs. Sarkozy stayed behind with her children at a luxury rental house in New Hampshire. She left it to her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, to meet the Bush clan and offer her regrets.
At a news conference, the French president explained that his wife had a severe sore throat. But a day later, newspapers in France started sniping, marveling at the first lady’s miraculous recovery.
The French daily Le Parisien pointed out that Mrs. Sarkozy was seen the day after the lunch shopping with two friends in Wolfeboro, N.H. With the help of a medical expert, the newspaper calculated how long a severe sore throat would ordinarily last. The conclusion: Her malady had not been serious, certainly not serious enough to stand up a world leader.
Even Le Figaro, a right-leaning daily ordinarily supportive of the conservative president, took note of Mrs. Sarkozy’s swift reappearance on Sunday, when the first lady took a stroll in shorts and a T-shirt in the company of two friends.
Her failure to appear Saturday inevitably evoked memories of other times she was a no-show. She did not attend many of Mr. Sarkozy’s biggest presidential campaign events, including the giddy moment when he claimed victory as France’s new president.
She was also missing from the voting booth, which French journalists discovered by checking public voting records for the election’s second, decisive round. And the reluctant first lady — who once was quoted saying the job would bore her — vanished again after a brief appearance at a Group of 8 meeting this summer, leaving her husband as the only unaccompanied leader at a gala dinner hosted by the German chancellor.
This time, C?cilia Sarkozy missed out on a lunch of hamburgers, corn on the cob and blueberry pie that demonstrated a warming in Franco-American relations, as Mr. Sarkozy mingled with Mr. Bush, his wife and parents, and brother Jeb.
The regional daily Charente Libre editorialized that Mrs. Sarkozy’s absence came close to a “diplomatic incident.”
“But without a doubt, we would have paid less attention to this American episode if she hadn’t been so present in Tripoli at the behest of her husband, the president,” the editorial said.
Mrs. Sarkozy traveled to Libya last month as a presidential emissary, arriving at a critical time in the European Union’s efforts to win the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted — experts say erroneously — of infecting Libyan children with H.I.V.
In two trips to Libya, she met with the prisoners and the families of the children as well as the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. During her second trip, the nurses and doctor were freed, but critics charged that the deal for their release included the promise of a weapons contract worth $405 million.
Mrs. Sarkozy also weathered personal attacks from anonymous European diplomats who complained that she arrived in time to steal the glory for the culmination of negotiations that had long been under way.
The new first lady’s unpredictable style is a break with the past. Traditional French presidential wives were expected to be discreet “premi?res dames” avoiding being too aloof or too influential politically. Claude Pompidou, for instance, never expressed a political view, but played an instrumental role in creating the Pompidou Center, a museum, and supporting modern art.
Mrs. Sarkozy has not disclosed the scope of her plans as first lady, but aides have promised that she will reveal how she intends to shape her role after the summer. Nor has she moved into the presidential palace, remaining in the family apartment in the affluent suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine outside Paris.
But while she mulls her next move, others are already defining her. A cartoon in Le Monde pictured Mr. Sarkozy introducing himself to Colonel Qaddafi. “I know,” said the Libyan leader, whom Mrs. Sarkozy is said to have charmed. “You’re C?cilia’s husband.”
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