The word need is the short term for a wide concept of order. Things have to fall into place and the order the Universe is constantly taking care of will come. It’s about an order. L’amour.
It all started with Brigitte Trogneux’s blue Louis Vuitton suit at the inauguration of the youngest president in the French history, Emmanuel Macron. It afterwards got to him, his determined mind and honest smile. It ended with their love which, in fact, started the whole thing to begin with. It’s a French story, it is only natural.
The Frenchest of the French.
Quoi?
Je ne sais quoi.
Emmanuel must have said to himself while laying eyes on the woman that was about to make him go for his life and become a president. A lot of us love, but please tag someone you know who also became a president. Or a man who actually does what he said he will do.
The most attractive thing a man can do is exactly what he says he’s going to do.
Brigitte might have “made him the man he is today” (E.M.), but it was Emmanuel who had it all started. He was a 15 years old student in a high school in Amiens and at the first sight of his then 39 years old drama teacher, Brigitte Trogneux, he fell in love. She might have been considered the adult in the equation, but two years later, Emmanuel, at only 17 – right after his parents decided to send him to Paris to finish his school and hopefully forget about the obsession he nurtured for a married with (three) children lady – had the balls to tell her “No matter what you do, I will get married to you!‘. Now imagine this said in French and her face, but his face also.
Next time a guy tells you that, look him straight in the eyes and think of a job for him. It is very likely he will become it.
Some drama.
He was 29, she was 53 in 2007 when they did get married and have been inseparable ever since. He’d went for her children’s blessings and got them, no doubt, since they were actually involved in his election campaign this year and Brigitte’s seven grandchildren call him “daddy”. The families get along just fine and could be the subject of a modern movie, yet a classic love story with not only a happy end, but also with a role model for nowadays idea of love. And life.
Emanuel Macron entered politics in 2012, at 34, after quitting his job as an investments banker. He was first François Hollande’s adviser, then the Minister of Economy until 2016, when he quit and founded the civic organisation En Marche! to prepare his run for presidency.
They told us it was impossible!, said Emmanuel during his speech upon winning the presidential race.
But they laughed at Jules Verne, too.
In the Netflix documentary, Emmanuel Macron: Behind the Rise, his team stands out just as much as he does. They not only worked for him, but also believed in him just as much as Brigitte did. All with ease and warmth, laughing and working hard. Still human jokes, human day to day gestures, human beliefs, always refusing to fit the shady standards of today’s society. Genuinely human, after all, but always an explorer.
And a bit of a romantic lunatic. But sometimes it is precisely this kind of people that change the world.
An explorer must Brigitte be, too. She defies all stereotypes that women of “a certain age” should behave or dress a certain way – because she certainly does not behave or dress like other 64 year olds. But she always looks polished, pulled together and, most important, herself. Ever genuinely charismatic, regardless of the roles she’s had. She seems not to let even the First Lady one change her charming personality.
Trogneux was born to a family of wildly successful chocolatiers and this is how this story could not get more French, unless it was called Jeux d’enfants. Even Vogue seems to be mesmerised by the French first lady in an era where women fight so much for feminism, but would do almost anything to fit nowadays’ world, forgetting about their inner selves.
Directly after inauguration day, Macron celebrated mid-May’s sunny days at the Élysée Palace in a cornflower blue Louis Vuitton skirt suit that inched upward to reveal the head-turning limbs that would soon become her signature. A belted black shift, also from Louis Vuitton, came next, paired with leg-elongating nude pumps. Even when swathed in sheer black tights, her willowy stems maintained a scene-stealing presence. But lest one think Macron only shows them off for official occasions, the First Lady left her home in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage on a bicycle in June clad in a crisp button-up, sneakers, and a denim miniskirt that hit at mid-thigh. And today in Germany at the G20 summit, Macron stepped out in a coral funnel-neck frock and flesh-tone stilettos that offered a leggy take on the political uniform.
Historically, the French have never set an expiration date on femininity or sensuality. This may explain why, at a time when America’s youth obsession is paramount, and its restrictions on women ever-more pervasive (including Congress’s recent deeming of sleeveless attire inappropriate), Macron’s rejection of outdated age- and gender-related dress codes feels particularly remarkable. Visible on a global scale, France’s First Lady is cutting a liberating new feminist path with her particular brand of Gallic body confidence. In politics, as in life, what could be more powerful?
While most French spouses don’t take on a typical first lady role, Macron hopes to change that by giving his wife an official position. They just seem to not get enough of each other. Brigitte Trogneux and the French President Emmanuel Macron certainly have a story meant to go down in history.
Love. Falling in love is not rational. It’s madness. A beautiful, wonderful moment of magnificent insanity.
The music and the ideals in the Netflix documentary resembles to Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s epic Birdman. Luckily for the French biopic, the leading role is always on a positive note and is a little bit of a Batman, too. Birdman, Batman, we love heroes. They go for their goals with love, not arrogance, hatred, nor throwing shades. Just giving wings.