Commentators are revelling in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s effusive praise of Britain and drooling over the fashion sense of his wife but several see stormier waters ahead — specifically in the second half of the year from July when France takes over the presidency of the European Union.

Leader writers see problems in the two countries’ approach to Europe, particularly over France’s desire for closer European defence co-operation and a permanent EU president.

“The excitement generated by the Sarkozys’ visit will soon give way to prosaic confirmation of the old divides,” was the Daily Telegraph’s opinion.

“Gordon Brown is decidedly cool towards the EU and he could soon find himself at odds with a man who has an extremely ambitious agenda for the French presidency,” it added.

The Independent took a similar line, despite underlining the similarity between the domestic political positions of the two leaders.

Both, it noted, were men who had spent their entire lives working towards the top job but having reached the peak, now find themselves falling out of favour with their electorates.

“In that respect (Thursday’s) meeting could be an occasion for two drunks to prop each other up,” the paper said.

“They are leaders with fading home support in need of some foreign successes to imbue them with the role of statesmen,” it added.

The papers were united in welcoming Sarkozy’s lavish praise for Britain, the Anglo-Saxon economic model and the help London had given Paris during the past century.

What a contrast!

They contrasted the warm sentiments with the frosty relations between the two leaders’ predecessors, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac who fell out, primarily over Iraq.

“Enthusiastic overtures from a French president are hardly unwelcome in Britain, even if an immediate use for them is unclear,” said The Times. “The problem is that what he appears to envisage goes not just beyond what Britain wants, but what he can deliver.”

How, for example, the paper said, would Sarkozy’s hints about bringing France back into NATO’s chain of command after its 42-year absence, square with his idea of an EU army?

The Financial Times noted a wealth of issues continued to threaten Anglo-French relations, not least the Common Agricultural Policy, immigration controls, Britain’s EU budget rebate, mad cow disease and Iraq.

“The history of Anglo-French relations is littered with grand promises of fresh starts that quickly turn mouldy,” it observed.

“That said, (Sarkozy’s) seemingly heartfelt appeal to upgrade the ‘entente cordiale’ to an ‘entente amicale’ is both welcome and timely.”

And “le bling?”

One thing all the papers agreed on was the assured fashion sense of Sarkozy’s new wife, former supermodel Carla Bruni.

Under the headline “French Dressing,” The Independent, like many other papers, ran a picture gallery of the new First Lady of France, concentrating on the demure grey outfit she wore on arrival at Heathrow.

The reader could be forgiven for thinking one of three things about that ensemble, it said.

“That she had swapped outfits with an air hostess on board, that she had spent weeks studying pictures of Jackie Kennedy and the classic pillbox (hat), or she had renounced being the president’s wife and had taken holy orders. Or possibly all three.”

The entente hasn’t been quite so cordiale for some time, judging by a ragbag of pointers in the newspapers over recent weeks.

Young French people are coming to live and work in London in record numbers, it seems, to the extent there’s now even an area named after them, in the manner of Little Italy or Kangaroo Valley. The fact that it’s rather rudely called Frog Alley should not diminish the importance of this significant milestone.

Going in the other direction, large numbers of Brits living in France have been standing in municipal elections — nay, encouraged to stand — in the areas where they have a significant presence. Welcomed with open arms, some of the reports said.

We’ve moved our Eurostar terminal from the unfortunately named Waterloo, so now French passengers don’t have to arrive to a smug display of British triumphalism, while President Sarkozy has been playing mood music about the importance of closer ties with the old enemy.

A recent poll even found that our national characters are converging. The French and the British were voted rudest and second-rudest people in Europe.

But how far can all this go? Have we been distant neighbours for too long or is it simply pie in the sky to think the British and the French will ever love each other?