<font size="3"><h3>CHIRAC TO MOVE TO RIVERBANK PARIS APARTMENT: REPORT<br>
<font size="2">Received Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:45:00 GMT</font></h3></font>
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<b>P</b></font>ARIS, April 24, 2007 (AFP) - French President Jacques
Chirac, who leaves office next month, is to move from the Elysee palace
to a chic apartment on the capital's Left Bank, a French newspaper
reported Tuesday.<br>
The apartment is being lent to the Chiracs by the family of the
former Lebanese president Rafic Hariri, who was assassinated in Beirut
in February 2005. Chirac was a close personal friend of Hariri.<br>
Bernadette Chirac is already overseeing the moving of their
furniture and possessions to the 180 square-metre (1,900 square-feet)
apartment, which has a view across the River Seine to the Louvre
museum, said the daily Le Parisien.<br>
The building lies not far from the historic Ecole des Beaux Arts
(Fine Arts School) in a neighbourhood known for up-market antique
dealers and art galleries. However it is north-facing and fronts onto
the Quai Voltaire, which is a major traffic artery.<br>
According to Le Parisien, several photographers stationed outside
the apartment were told to leave by police Monday after a complaint
from Bernadette Chirac.<br>
A member of the Chirac entourage said that because their various
commitments the couple had not yet had time to find a place of their
own, but stressed that their final home would not be paid for by the
state.<br>
The move is a major event for Chirac, 74, who has hardly lived in his own home for more than 30 years.<br>
In 1974 he was elected prime minister for the first time and moved
into the official residence at the Hotel Matignon. Later he had a suite
of apartments at the Hotel de Ville when he was Paris mayor for 18
years, and in 1995 he moved as president to the Elysee.<br>
He is to retire after the run-off election on May 6, which is being
contested by right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal.<br>
In addition to the Quai Voltaire apartment, he will have access --
as a former president -- to a suite of offices at the nearby National
Assembly. He will also have his own office at a foundation for ecology
and cultural dialogue that is being set up in his name later this year,
the paper said.<br>
Meanwhile France's Official Gazette published details of Chirac's
personal estate -- in accordance with a 1962 law governing the conduct
of presidents when they leave office.<br>
The couple's chateau in the Correze department of southwest France
was valued at 500,000 euros (680,000 dollars), and a country cottage in
the same region was put at 60,000 euros. A Paris apartment which they
owned in 1995 has been made over to their daughter Claude.<br>
The Chiracs declared personal belongings and artworks worth 580,000
euros and 74,000 euros in the bank. They also said they possess a 1984
Peugeot 205.</font>