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Britain makes acquaintance with the subdued and sober “Sarko nouveau” today as the French leader uses his London trip to act presidentially and restore the trust of voters who fell out of love with his impulsive, self-promoting ways.

Mr Sarkozy is certainly out to impress Britain with a dazzling retinue that includes Carla Bruni, his super-model wife, and a batch of glamorous women ministers, but he is, above all, intent on beaming home an aura of statesmanship.

The grandeur of a royal welcome from France’s ancestral rival could not be better timed as Mr Sarkozy embarks on the second week of a personal relaunch after punishment for his UMP party in town hall elections.

France Soir said yesterday: “Nicolas Sarkozy is pursuing Operation Restore Popularity . . . He hopes that his trip to the heart of British royalty will erase once and for all that image of ‘bling-bling’.”

After turning a deaf ear for months to discontent with his hyperactive, showy ways, Mr Sarkozy has switched course, bowing to advisers who argued that style, not policy, was his handicap. France does not want a flamboyant, hot-tempered ordinary bloke in the Elysée Palace, according to opinion polls showing that more than 60 per cent believed that he had not been conducting himself as a president should.

In response, Mr Sarkozy has stopped rushing to handle every emergency; he has retired into the Elysée Palace, limiting his appearances to lofty occasions such as the commissioning last Friday of a nuclear submarine at Cherbourg. Gone, also, are the slick sunglasses and the chunky Breitling and Rolex watches.

There has also been little sight of the mobile telephone that used to seem glued to his ear. After parading Ms Bruni before cameras during their lightning courtship over the winter, Mr Sarkozy has hardly been seen in public with his wife of six weeks. No photographers were on hand last weekend when they took a scheduled flight together rather than a private jet to spend Easter in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh.

In contrast, dozens of photographers attended the glitzy wedding in New York on Sunday of Cécilia Cigan

er, the wife who left him last October, to Richard Attias, an events organiser.

“It seems that he has finally got the message,” said Jean-Luc Parodi, head of Ifop polling and a leading political scientist. “Shattering an image can be done quickly. Nicolas Sarkozy proved that to his cost. The reconstruction can only happen slowly, but the President has no doubt taken the measure of this condition.” Ifop’s latest poll on Sunday showed that only 37 per cent approved of the President, one point down over the past month.

Ms Bruni, who was famous for her prodigious love life, has adopted a demure new style, with long, simple dresses in dark colours. She is to release a new album of songs next month but says that she now wants to devote herself to humanitarian causes.

However, embarrassment appeared on the horizon when it emerged yesterday that Christie’s in New York is to auction a portrait of Ms Bruni in which she is naked. The photograph, taken in 1993 by Michel Comte, is to go under the hammer on April 10 with an estimated price of $4,000.

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