October 29, 2009 12:42PM # It Is Good to Be the King: Taxpayers Pay $413,000 for French President’s Unused Luxury Shower By [Marian L. Tupy](https://www.cato.org/people/marian-l-tupy) --- SHARE Bastien François, a professor of political science at the Sorbonne, [writes](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/01/opinion/01iht-edfield_ed3_.html) that “The French political system is incomprehensible to the rest of the world… In France we call it a republican monarchy. That phrase says it all.” Indeed, according to the [press](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/6448116/EU-taxpayers-paid-250000-for-shower---which-Sarkozy-never-used.html), a £250,000 ($413,000) shower with air conditioning and radio surround sound that was “built to the exact specifications of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy” was paid for by the EU taxpayer during the French Presidency of the European Union in July 2008. It was “disposed of soon afterwards, unused, together with most of the equipment bought for the £16million ($26 million) conference.” The press also reported “other expenses included £1million ($1.65 million) spent on the opening dinner alone — more than £23,000 ($38,000) for each of the 43 heads of state.” [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).