Bernadette Chirac, the steel-willed former first lady of France who spent 12 years at the Élysée Palace from 1995 to 2007 beside president Jacques Chirac while building her own political power in rural Corrèze and turning a children’s hospital charity into a national institution, has died. She was 93. Beloved by many, Bernadette was a “discreet force” and the “rock” on which her husband’s political career was based on, according to Paul Smith, head of modern languages and associate professor in French at the University of Nottingham.