France's Premi

Throughout France's recent election campaign, Valery Giscard d'Estaing was rarely without a member of his family by his side. One of his two sons, Henri, 17, and Louis, 16, usually carried the notes for his speeches. Younger daughter Jacinte, 14, became one of the most familiar faces in France; her picture appeared on thousands of her father's election posters. Pretty Valerie-Anne, 20, surprised and delighted a crowd of 100,000 Parisians at an election rally when she suddenly kissed her father on both cheeks just as he was about to begin his speech. Equally visible was Giscard's shy, fragile wife, Anne-Aymone, 41, who flew off on her own to the distant departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique to campaign for her husband.

Such flamboyant exposure of a candidate's family has been unheard of in France, but it will not be the only precedent broken by the Giscards. For example, Anne-Aymone has made no secret of her reluctance to move into the forbidding Elysee Palace, official home of French Presidents since 1879. During the campaign, she remarked, "Mme. de Gaulle told me that the Elysee was not very livable." Indeed, the palace's private quarters contain only two bedrooms, and major renovations will be needed before all six Giscards can move there. Mme. Giscard would much prefer to reside in the family home in the exclusive 16th arrondissement and use the palace as an office.

Mme. Giscard is unprecedented as a First Lady in other respects. Mme. de Gaulle, known to her countrymen as "Aunt Yvonne," was something of a bluenose who strove to keep French newsstands free of "sexy" magazines. By contrast, Claude Pompidou, 62, gave chic parties for le tout Paris and dressed in the latest fashions. Mme. Giscard has little interest in clothes. During the campaign, she wore the same sweater-over-blouse combination so often that it started to look like a uniform.

Mme. Giscard may be able to help her husband overcome the familiar criticism that he lacks the common touch. She has said that as France's First Lady, she wants "to help him see the human problems, which women can sometimes feel better." One of her major interests is in encouraging career education for women. She has had some experience in that herself, having studied economics in the past two years in order to "keep up with the economic-oriented discussions in the family." Indeed, it probably takes some doing to keep up with Valerie-Anne, a student at the prestigious Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris, and Henri, who is studying economics at the University of Nanterre. The two younger children are enrolled in private Catholic schools in Paris.

Mme. Giscard was born to a tradition of wealth and public service. One of her grandfathers was Eugene Schneider, the 19th century steel tycoon. Her father was a career military officer who fought with the French Resistance before his capture by the Gestapo and died while a prisoner at Mauthausen concentration camp. Anne-Aymone was an 18-year-old secretarial student when she met Giscard, then 26 and a promising young official in the Finance Ministry. They were married, after a brief courtship, in 1952.

Until recently, France's new President tried to keep his family isolated from the pressures of politics. At the dinner table, political topics were banned. Talk centered instead on minor events of the day, the children's report cards, or sports, reflecting Giscard's interest in soccer. After dinner, Giscard sometimes helped Henri with his economic studies or played the piano. On Sundays the family would attend a late Mass and then walk in the Tuileries gardens together.

The presidential campaign changed much of this. Politics became a consuming topic. Not only did the children accompany their father on campaign trips, but Henri and Valerie-Anne sold the now famous Giscard `a la Barre! (Giscard at the helm) T shirts, planned bicycle tours of Paris and organized sing-ins at the Etoile. Mme. Giscard was constantly on call for press interviews. While she realizes that the presidency will intrude on the family's private life, she hopes that it will be "as little as possible. I hope I won't be obliged to cloister myself and will be able to continue doing my own shopping and lead a normal life."

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