LOUISE-FRANÇOISE DE BOURBON, bastard daughter of Louis XIV, built the Palais-Bourbon beside her lover's Hôtel de Lassay in order to be near him; her gardens were a favorite place to stroll. Today the Palais-Bourbon is the home of France's National Assembly, and the gardens in recent years have been a morning rendezvous for two unlikely figures. One was a watchful policeman cradling an automatic rifle. The other was Assembly President Jacques Pierre Michel Chaban-Delmas, 54, togged in a track suit. Under the eyes of his security guard, Chaban-Delmas would jog determinedly for half...
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