I'm a French president, get me out of here

Very quiet day in a French newsroom. Much of it could have been spent looking at video of Sarkozy in Africa filmed over the past few days. There he was walking in a park with Omar Bongo, Gabon's dictator since 1967. This is not la rupture by any strecth of the imagination and you could see the discomfort on Sarko's face. He's in pure Chirac-mode here. Something about the administration of the French republic forces the new President to spend his day in Gabon; what is so damned precious about gaining the respect of a man like Bongo? On a July 27th, why on earth is Sarkozy posing for photos in a Gabon rain forest instead of working his tan on a yacht in Malta?