Giscard d'Estaing: France mourns ex

A year later, and to Giscard d'Estaing's profound embarrassment, the constitution was roundly rejected by the French people. He later complained that "the rejection of the Constitutional treaty by voters in France was a mistake that should be corrected".

In 2005, he and his brother purchased the castle of Estaing in the French district of Aveyron, which had previously been owned by Admiral d'Estaing. Giscard d'Estaing's family had no direct connection with the deceased naval officer and there was much criticism that he was attempting to buy his way into the nobility.

In 2009, he published a novel about a relationship between a fictional French president and the fictional Princess of Cardiff. It led to speculation that it was based on a relationship between Giscard d'Estaing and Diana, Princess of Wales, although he eventually poured cold water on those suggestions.

Earlier this year, he was accused of groping a German reporter during a 2018 interview - charges he denied.

Valery Giscard d'Estaing was something of an enigma. Intellectually gifted, he lacked the common touch and never became popular with the French people.

His single-minded approach to greater European integration was not to everyone's taste and his aloof nature meant he often fell out with his allies.

Bitterly disappointed that Britain decided to leave the European Union in 2016, he described it as a "backward step". But the enthusiastic architect of European unity was, by now, in his nineties. He felt, he said, inclined to take the long view.

"We functioned without Britain during the first years of the European Union," he said, with a Gallic shrug. "So we will rediscover a situation that we have already known."