Carla Bruni’s fame was meant to reach new heights with the launch of a website glorifying her work as France’s First Lady. Instead, it crashed within minutes of opening.

Advisers said the carlabrunisarkozy.org site was unable to cope with the number of visitors. They added that its goal was to promote her foundation set up to help France’s “most vulnerable citizens”. “Because of too many visits, the site ... is provisionally inaccessible,” said a message.

A lucky few had a brief glimpse of the contents before the crash, and were able to savour Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy’s depiction of herself as a philanthropist, egalitarian, fashion icon, avant garde artist and friend of the great and good.

Prominent on the first page was an article about Jean-Paul Gaultier, the designer, and a photograph of Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy with Michelle Obama at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

There was also a profile presenting the Italian born pop star as a modern feminist who admired the suffragettes and the women’s liberation movement.

In an apparent attempt to win the approval of a largely conservative electorate, it hinted that Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy was herself more moderate than her feminist forebears, and implied that she is unlikely to chain herself to the railings of the Élysée, her husband’s official residence.

The pastel colours on the site appeared to drive home the message that the woman who has slept with the likes of Sir Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton is now a model housewife.

Her aides said the main goal of the site was to promote her foundation, which has been set up to help France’s “most vulnerable citizens” by giving them “access to culture and education through the fight against inequality”.

Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy who married President Sarkozy after a whirlwind romance last year, wants the charity to encourage underprivileged children to obtain places at elite higher education establishments.

She has promised funding to pay for tuition fees for the most promising pupils.

The website is also meant to underscore her work as first ambassador to the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria — a role she took on in memory of her brother, Virginio, who died of an Aids-related illness in 2006.

“We want to inform the general public of the causes which motivate Carla Bruni-Sarkozy by bringing together in the same space all the information about her activities,” said Julien Civange, a music composer and producer who created the site.

“The accent is on the causes she defends rather than on herself.”

However, that claim sat uneasily with the hype around the site, which overshadowed her husband’s announcement that he would recount his moves at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen on Twitter, the microblogging website.

He might not mind, however. With her politically-correct, artistic background Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy, 41, has proved a political asset in his move to win the hearts and minds of the Left Bank establishment.

Once seen as a lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key right-winger, Mr Sarkozy, 53, has won the support of left-wing figures with his wife’s help. When her website starts to work, he pay again bask in her reflected glory.

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