French president marries former model

French President Nicolas Sarkozy married former model Carla Bruni on Saturday at the Elyse Palace, according to the official who performed the ceremony.

"The bride wore white. She was ravishing, as usual," Franois Lebel, the mayor of Paris's eighth arrondissement, or district, told Europe-1 radio. "The groom wasn't bad either."

It was a historic occasion, "the first time in the history of the republic that a president has got married in office," Lebel said.

Sarkozy, 53, and Bruni, 40, werewed in the presence of about 20 close family and friends, Lebel said.

He called the ceremony "a moment of family intimacy for the ... newlyweds, of great simplicity and apparently a lot of affection between the spouses."

"I wished them a lot of happiness," he said.Under French law, couples must tie the knotin the presence ofa mayor to make their union official.

Sarkozy's openness about his private life has surprised many French, accustomed to presidents who keep their love lives under wraps.

At a news conference in January, Sarkozy disclosed that the relationship was "serious" and hinted that wedding plans were in the works.

But he refused to disclose a date for a wedding, saying only that France might learn about the nuptials once they had already taken place.

The couple went public with their relationship during a visit to Disneyland Paris, and they carried out their brief but highly publicized courtship in such places as the ruins of Petra, Jordan.

The tabloids even showed the couple at an Egyptian beach resort, Bruni in a tiny black bikini, Sarkozy in trunks and Ray-Ban sunglasses.

Sarkozy's approval ratings dropped during their courtship in part, analysts say, because many older, more traditional voters were put off by his glitzy, jet-setting style.

During their romance, Sarkozy was nicknamed the "bling-bling president" by the media. He reportedly gave Bruni a pink heart-shaped diamond Dior engagement ring, while she gave him a Swiss-made Patek Philippe watch.

The wedding was the third for Sarkozy, who has three children. It was the first for Bruni, an Italian-born heiress who had a major modelling career and a well-publicized love life.

Bruni, now a singer, dated rockers Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, tycoon Donald Trump and actor Vincent Perez. She has a young son, Aurlien, from a relationship with a philosophy professor, Raphael Enthoven.