President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla have provoked an outcry in France by spending the weekend at the El Tamarindo Beach and Golf Resorts in a one bedroom villa owned by a millionaire friend of Mexico‘s President Felipe Calderón.

The vast holiday home came complete with private pool, outdoor Jacuzzi and the service of a butler, personal cook and maid.

It is currently high season at the resort, with the villa costing $3,500 plus 17 per cent taxes and obligatory 10 per cent service charges – making a total of just over $4,300.

With France facing high unemployment and the possibility of a recession some are shocked by the president’s vacation

One Dailymail reader posted a reaction to the break saying: “Sarko and Carla are back acting like Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette again. They have no appreciation of what ordinary people are going through.”

“The sheep work hard for our president,” said one caller to a French radio station, with a presenter stating that: ‘With the explosion in unemployment, it is clear that the press will start calling Mr Sarkozy “President Bling Bling” again.’

However, the French government said the millionaires’ resort was used by the Sarkozys’ because of security reasons. The estimated cost of the couple’s beach break was $62,000.

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