<p>Never mind that there was a French military band playing in the background, for a moment the D-Day images that the cameras were capturing in Caen became surreally interchangeable with shots from a catwalk show.</p>
<p>Two tall women, one of them a model, were swinging in step in classic “paired” runway formation. Both were almost identically dressed in knee-length cream with belts, bare legs and heels. They could almost have been modelling some designers’ collection named “First Lady Spring 2009”. Undoubtedly the choice of colour worn by Mrs Obama and Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy was a coincidence. Hell would surely freeze before two such self-confident dressers would confer over what to wear.</p>