The bad boy returns

But it's fairly clear from the rapturous welcome on this tour de France that these supporters come not to bury Sarko but to praise him. No, if trouble comes it will come from the little dynamo himself, as wired as the fairy lights in the square, already up for Christmas.

The aides just don't trust his new mantra - "with age comes less energy but more wisdom and hindsight" - nor his new humility when dealing with the public. They know a wrong question or a perceived insult can still set him off as fast as a badly made rocket on an equally dangerous trajectory.

For many of us, if not the weary companions, that's the joy of the former head of state. Like him or loathe him, as most did in the dying days of his empire, he has brought a certain frisson back into the grey world of politics as defined by President Francois Hollande.

Licking his wounds in the south of France since his defeat two-and-a-half years ago, Sarko has returned, like a mini de Gaulle, to save us all: to save La France.

In our "despair", as he described it, he heard our cries from the wilderness until he could no longer ignore them.

In a TV interview last month held to formalise his comeback, he said: "I've never seen such anger or such a lack of perspective in France.

"Staying on the sidelines as a spectator would be to abandon my country. Not only do I want to come back but I had no choice."

Describing France as "one of the rare countries where there is a lack of hope" he added: "France is collapsing, people don't believe in politics any more, my political party is divided like never before - so should I simply stay at home?"

With that he hit the ground running, batting off the little matter of a string of legal challenges and questions surrounding the funding of his 2007 and 2012 campaigns. The boy is well back in town - every major town in l'Hexagone, in fact - on his one-night stands for votes.

This evening he is down the road in Toulouse and I'm kicking myself for not being there. But I need not worry - the new, all-inclusive Sarkozy is blasting my Twitter feed to keep me up to date with his question-and-answer session.

He has a new plan to bring France out from under the bleakness of Hollande's ineffective rule which has left the country with zero growth, soaring unemployment and a barely-disguised contempt from the electorate.

The plan is effectively what he promised the French people before - the tackling of the sacred, expensive cows of bureaucracy, the health service, monopolies, tax regimes and crippling employment laws. All the things he turned back from, or was turned back from, when faced with the combined might of unions and Socialist opposition. The difference this time is that he is dressing up the unpalatable by appealing to French honour, pride and sense of justice. And, of course, appealing to the baser side of those looking for others to blame.

One has to admire his chutzpah; admire his punchy, extraordinary self-belief. Personally, I have a soft spot for the little rooster but then like many women I love a bad boy and all the underlying perceived complexities.

Sarkozy may be deluded but I believe he truly sees himself as France's saviour, the white knight banishing for ever the evil witch in the seductive form of Marine Le Pen and leading La France to gloire once more. God knows the country needs a little honesty and direction.

There was something a touch disturbing in seeing the prime minister, Manuel Valls, flying to London to counteract le "French bashing" on a three-day mission to convince the City and journalists that France is "not finished".

He landed soon after injudicious remarks from Andy Street, the director of John Lewis, who had described the country as finished, adding that "nothing works" and "nobody cares".

France's politicians of old would not have deigned to discuss the country's affairs with their inferiors, or the rest of the world in other words. Love-bombing was reserved purely for potential mistresses.

I cannot imagine even the new, humble Sarkozy ever abasing himself before perfidious Albion, and nor should he. Sure, France has its problems - major problems that require a radical overhaul of its attitudes and institutions.

They will not, though, be restructured by looking across the Channel to the City of London and its values. And they will not be restructured by rooting out the heart of France - the firm belief that life is more than work and status.

Life is to be savoured, to be relished.

In his own, still clumsy way, Sarkozy is tapping into that but warning it comes at a price. It remains to be seen if the French are listening this time.