FRANCE: The US National Security Council spokesman said President George W Bush's meeting with the French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy lasted 25 minutes. Mr Sarkozy's entourage said it was 40; the 15-minute fudge spoke volumes about the importance the French right-wing leader attached to the encounter.
Both Mr Sarkozy and his chief rival, socialist Ségolène Royal, spent much of this week abroad, trying to project international stature.
Mr Sarkozy's meeting with Mr Bush on Tuesday evening, in the office of US national security adviser Stephen Hadley, was the culmination of a four-day trip to the US. The socialists accused Mr Sarkozy of abusing his position as interior minister to campaign at the expense of French taxpayers.
President Jacques Chirac half-heartedly defended Mr Sarkozy, saying he had asked him to represent France at September 11th ceremonies "since he was going to be there anyway".
Mr Sarkozy acted as if he were already head of state, making policy statements on Franco-American relations, the Middle East and the situation in Darfur.
Coming out of a meeting with UN secretary general Kofi Annan, he advised his socialist rival to travel more.
Ms Royal in fact spent Monday and Tuesday in Italy, where she dined with prime minister Romano Prodi, and yesterday in Brussels, for lunch with president of the EU Commission José Manuel Barroso followed by a meeting with Josep Borrel, president of the European Parliament.
On Saturday, she'll dine with Spanish prime minister José Luis Zapatero in Madrid.
Later this month, she will visit Senegal, where she was born.
Few memorable quotes seem to come out of Ms Royal's travels. Mr Sarkozy, on the other hand, never stops talking.
Mr Bush reportedly decided to drop in on the Sarkozy-Hadley meeting next to the Oval Office after hearing about the speech Mr Sarkozy delivered earlier in the day in the nearby building of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The US president usually meets only with visiting heads of state and government.
Mr Sarkozy's aides were delighted when the White House released photographs of the two men together.
Perhaps it was Mr Sarkozy's criticism of French "arrogance" that so pleased George W Bush. Or his assertion that "the virulence of the press and part of the French elite against the US is a form of jealousy over your brilliant success."
Or his admission that: "My devotion to our relationship with America is well known and has earned me substantial criticism in France. I am not a coward. I'm proud of this friendship, and I proclaim it gladly."
Mr Sarkozy parroted the Bush administration's position on the Iranian nuclear crisis, saying that "all options must be open".
Could Mr Sarkozy in fact be campaigning for the White House, not the Élysée?
"I want to say how close I feel to Israel," he said, departing from his prepared speech. "Israel is the victim. It must do everything to avoid being mistaken for the aggressor."
According to the New York Times, Mr Sarkozy was most frank in a closed-door session with 12 leaders of the American Jewish community at the French consulate in New York.
The discussion was supposed to be confidential, but US newspapers quoted Mr Sarkozy saying: "I am a friend of America. I am a friend of Israel."
He called Hizbullah a terrorist organisation, explained that he did not want Turkey to join the EU because he does not want Europe to become Muslim, and promised that if he became president his "number one priority" would be preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
While Mr Sarkozy was adopting a stance on world issues, Ms Royal's week was poisoned after she lashed out sarcastically at a young woman at a socialist rally in Brittany last weekend. "The Nolwenn affair" took on huge proportions and followed Ms Royal to Italy.
"You don't have to ask the boy behind you for permission to talk!" Ms Royal said after the young woman faltered when challenging the socialist candidate's left-wing credentials. "You're a woman; you have the right to express yourself!" Ms Royal continued. Nolwenn was on the verge of tears, and told journalists she felt humiliated. Ms Royal later telephoned her to apologise, but enemies on the left claimed the incident revealed the presidential candidate's true character.