A quote from The Daily Telegraph, 18 January 2007

Segolene Royal, the doyenne of the French left, suffered an embarrassing blow to her image as a presidential candidate yesterday when she was accused of tax dodging. Faced with taunts about being a gauche caviar, the Gallic equivalent of a champagne socialist, she denied being rich, instead claiming that she was just “well-off.” Not only does she have part ownership in three impressive homes with her boyfriend, the Socialist Party chairman Francois Hollande, but the two have set up a real estate company to manage the properties. This has enabled them to reduce the amount that they pay in l’impot de solidarité sur la fortune, or ISF, a high tax imposed on anyone with assets of more than $985,000.