PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy left Paris Tuesday for a private Christmas holiday in the Egyptian tourist town of Luxor accompanied by his new love, ex-supermodel Carla Bruni, an airport source said.
Sarkozy "was accompanied by Carla Bruni and nine other people", the source said, adding that the president left on a Falcon 900 plane owned by French billionaire tycoon Vincent Bollore.
The president will begin a two-day official tour of Egypt on December 30.
Sarkozy and his second wife Cecilia announced their divorce in October after 11 years of marriage. Since then, he has been publicly seen with Bruni but has remained tight-lipped about his relationship with the model-turned-singer.
Sarkozy drew criticism after his May election when he went on a big-budget holiday to Malta aboard a luxury yacht owned by his friend Bollore, one of France's richest men.
At the time, both Bollore and Sarkozy - whose friendship goes back 20 years - denied accusations of a conflict of interest, saying Bollore's business and media empire had no dealings with the French state.
"Vincent Bollore is one of the great French industrialists who has done a great deal for the French economy. He has never worked with the French state," Sarkozy had said, refusing to apologise for the trip.
But according to online French government records, Bollore's group has won state contracts worth up to 40 million euros (58 million dollars) in the past two years.
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