France on Friday will lay to rest Bernadette Chirac, widow of former president Jacques Chirac, in a funeral in Paris set to be attended by prominent figures from the worlds of politics and entertainment.
Bernadette Chirac, who stood by her late husband during 12 years as first lady, but also forged her own, more discreet, political career, died on June 5 at the age of 93.
Her funeral will be held at 2:30 pm (1230 GMT) at the Sainte-Clotilde Basilica in Paris.
Guests expected to attend include current French first lady Brigitte Macron, as well as two former presidents — Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande — as well as Sarkozy’s wife, the model and singer Carla Bruni.
The French government will be represented by Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin.
The basilica is a symbolic place for Bernadette Chirac and her husband. The couple were married in the nearby Sainte-Clotilde Chapel, where the funeral of the couple’s eldest daughter, Laurence, was also held in 2016.
Part of the basilica, which seats 650 people, will be open to the public, the couple’s daughter Claude Chirac told AFP, with the mass to be broadcast to people gathered outside the building.
In life, Bernadette Chirac was a patron of several charities but also carved out her own political career as a long-time elected councillor for the couple’s rural home department of Correze.
She also served as a member of the municipal council of the department’s small village of Sarran.
Correze will pay tribute to Chirac on Sunday and councillors from the department will carry the former first lady’s coffin into the Basilica of Saint-Clotilde.
She will be buried in the family plot at Montparnasse Cemetery in the capital.
AFP