Meet France's New First Lady

France may losing Carla Bruni as first lady, but it sounds like her successor won't miss a step. Some odds and ends about 47-year-old Valerie Trierweiler, the unmarried "companion"—the term she prefers—of President-elect Francois Hollande, from Time, AP, and BBC:

• She is a well-known journalist for Paris Match magazine. (Time uses the descriptor "feisty.")
• She is twice-divorced and has three teenage children from one of those previous marriages. She and Hollande, 10 years her senior, do not plan to marry in the near future.
• AP says Trierweiler "stole" Hollande from Segolene Royal, who ran for president herself in 2007 but lost to Nicolas Sarkozy. Royal and Hollande have four kids together and announced their breakup after that election.

• "Valerie is perfect. She's so French," says Paris fashion writer Rebecca Voight. "It's what French women see in themselves. ... She kept a respectful distance from Hollande during the campaign and also had her career, which people respect."
• Trierweiler herself: "I didn't choose to have a public life. I chose Francois. But I will adapt."

(More Francois Hollande stories.)