Fans praised his wit and tactile warmth (unlike most French politicians, he enjoyed hobnobbing with the voters, preferably over a beer or slice of saucisson in an unpretentious zinc-clad bar). Jacques Chirac was successful, too: mayor of Paris, twice prime minister and twice president, from 1995 to 2007. He may have bought a chateau in la France profonde, but it was a "little one", sniffed a snobbish predecessor, Valery Giscard d'Estaing. For the French, his love of France and its people made him sympa. Yet cynicism was also his hallmark.
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