President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla have provoked an outcry in France by spending the weekend at the El Tamarindo Beach and Golf Resorts in a one bedroom villa owned by a millionaire friend of Mexico‘s President Felipe Calderón.

The vast holiday home came complete with private pool, outdoor Jacuzzi and the service of a butler, personal cook and maid.

It is currently high season at the resort, with the villa costing $3,500 plus 17 per cent taxes and obligatory 10 per cent service charges – making a total of just over $4,300.

“Luxury as excellence, luxury as exclusivity, luxury as beauty, luxury as extravagance, luxury as satisfaction of our wishes.”

These words represent the soul of Vicenza fair, an International Luxury Exhibition that takes place in Italy on March.

This year visitors can find, and a lucky one could also buy, a delicious pink bed, that belonged to a famous and very chic woman: the Italian model, Carla Bruni.

According to Italian newspaper La Stampa, Carla Bruni, France’s first lady, has sold her family’s castle to an Arab sheikh for $11.5 million, dwarfing the $30,000 worth of diamonds she received as an engagement gift.

“Yes, we have finally found a buyer. We had finished with Castagneto Po, nobody went there anymore.” Carla’s mother, Marisa Bruni Tedeschi, said

A nude portrait of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife Carla Bruni will go under the hammer in New York next month, according to auctioneers Christie’s.

The 13 x 10 1/8 inch gelatin silver black and white photograph was taken in 1993, when Bruni was one of the world’s top fashion models, and is being sold by art collector Gert Elfering.

It is expected to fetch $3,000 to $4,000 when it is sold in New York on April 10, according to the Christie’s web site.