Profile: Segolene Royal
By Caroline Wyatt
BBC News, Paris
The UK had Margaret Thatcher, Germany has Angela Merkel as chancellor, and both Chile and Finland have elected female presidents in the last 12 months. So, could 2007 be the year that France votes in its first Madame la Presidente?
It looks like a distinct possibility, as Socialist politician and mother-of-four Segolene Royal - now her party's official presidential candidate - has been riding high in the opinion polls for months.
The 52-year-old regional premier of Poitou-Charentes soared in popularity after she came under sneering attack last year from male politicians from within her own party.
Yet, as if to prove the difficulties for any woman going for the top job in French politics, the French media has occasionally focused on such burning questions as whether or not she should have worn high heels on this or that foreign trip.
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