On Sunday, July 14, the crème de la crème of the government popped their heads out of the political doldrums to attend the parade... A moment's respite? Perhaps. A moment of unity? Not really. When the French aerial acrobatic display team appeared in the Paris skies, Brigitte Macron looked away, Gérard Larcher plunged into his notes, Gabriel Attal shielded his eyes, Aurore Bergé started a story and Emmanuel Macron tried the impossible: waving to the pilots!
By raising his right arm, Macron revealed the end of his shirt sleeve. In this case, a musketeer cuff, allowing us to make a little historical-textile point. These cuffs first appeared in the 18th century and quickly became the prerogative of soldiers and cavalrymen armed with muskets. Very much into style, and less into practicality, these musketeers fastened them with imposing colored ribbons. Emmanuel Macron, on the other hand, prefers cufflinks, which is all the better.
At his side, Brigitte Macron was all beige, dressed from head to toe by Louis Vuitton. The house's famous monogram – which appeared in 1896, both as a tribute to Louis Vuitton, who had died four years earlier, and to make it harder for plagiarists to copy the house's historic checkerboard fabric – was visible, at the cost of a small zoom in the image, on the lining of her jacket resting on her chair. Subtle product placement? Let's just say the sky is changing these days.
In the second row, the minister of sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, raised her hand to protect her eyes from the sun. This allowed us to see, firstly, that the former tennis player was wearing her watch on her right wrist – not a common occurrence, but in this case perfectly logical for this left-handed woman – and, secondly, that the said watch was fitted with a steel bracelet known as a "grain of rice" due to the shape of its links. For the curious, the minister's watch is a Panthère by Cartier.
Finally, how could we fail to notice that Franck Riester, seated in the third row, opted for a different tactic? With neither hand raised, nor sunglasses, nor a blank stare, the minister delegate for foreign affairs and the attractiveness of France placed a baseball cap on his head, adorned with a blue, white and red rosette bearing the letters "S," "N" and "U." Did he make the right choice? The cap in question will have served to remind everyone of the existence of this universal national service. And that's something.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.