AGRA, India - French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited one of the world's greatest monuments to love Saturday, pacing the elegant white marble hallways of the 17th-century Taj Mahal with a group of top advisers.
Left behind, though, was his girlfriend, Carla Bruni.
A small army of Indian security officers cleared the grounds of the monument early Saturday afternoon, just before Sarkozy's arrival in Agra, some 200 kilometres south of New Delhi.
French officials had left an air of mystery surrounding the visit. Earlier this week, officials indicated he would be going to the Taj Mahal, and media speculation ran wild in India and France that Bruni would go with him.
Sarkozy, 52, faced increasing criticism at home for the openness of his relationship with Bruni, 40. He had reportedly said she wouldn't go to India because they were not "yet'' married. Soon after, the Taj Mahal visit disappeared from Sarkozy's official schedule, even as Indian officials insisted that he would be going.
Still the rumours persisted: They had been secretly married and would announce it at the Taj Mahal, some said; Bruni had chartered a jet and would meet him there, bypassing the diplomatic complexities of the official visit, said others.
But on Saturday afternoon she was nowhere to be seen at the white marble monument, built by the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan in the mid-1600s in memory of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth.
"Unforgettable,'' Sarkozy wrote, in French, in the Taj Mahal guest book.
But with Sarkozy silent on his love life, only displaced tourists were talking openly about the subject.
"It's a pity for him,'' said Kees Meerten, a Dutch sculptor visiting the Taj Mahal. "It's ridiculous that he couldn't come with his girlfriend.''
Sarkozy and Bruni -- a tire-company heiress, model and singer who has also dated Mick Jagger and Donald Trump -- reportedly met in November, soon after the president's October divorce from Cecilia, his second wife.
Bruni's non-presence in India was, in some ways, the most talked-about part of Sarkozy's two-day visit. So far, his trip has been largely low-key, with pledges to increase Indo-French business, military, diplomatic and cultural ties.
Some people, though, had little interest at all in Sarkozy or Bruni.
"I couldn't care less about the French president,'' said Dave West, an American tourist forced to wait outside during Sarkozy's walk. "Whether or not he brings his mistress, that's his choice.''
