NYU art students were wowed last week when they got a surprise visit from the glamorous first lady of France. Her foundation runs an exchange between the school and the Sorbonne in Paris, so Carla Bruni-Sarkozy came to check out the art. She proclaimed some wine glasses tied together with wire, "Beautiful," and was photographed by a student/performance artist wearing pink rain boots and six cameras around her neck. According to the New Yorker, she left students and faculty alike tongue-tied: A student said, “It was like we were trying to talk, but no words were coming out,” while N.Y.U. chair Nancy Barton confessed, "I was a little bit of a deer in the headlights. I kept calling her Carla." more ›

Fresh off Bastille Day celebrations back home, France's first couple was in the Big Apple this weekend for a relatively social engagement. After a quick discussion of some global issues at the UN, French President Nicholas Sarkozy took some time to jog around the Central Park Reservoir. The Daily News says that Sarkozy "wore skimpy shorts" showing off the "chiseled stems" he needs in order to "keep up with his supermodel wife, Carla Bruni." The trip had been prompted by Bruni's performance at Radio City Music Hall last night's tribute concert to Nelson Mandela on the South African leader's 91st birthday. The French first lady took the stage in her American debut alongside Eurythmic Dave Stewart. Before her first ballad, Bruni told the crowd, "This one's not good for dancing. But it's good for dreaming." The concert also featured pop stars such as Josh Groban, Jesse McCartney and Li'l Kim, who said of the anti-apartheid icon, "He was very instrumental in my experience in prison." more ›