Emmanuel Macron's astonishing rise from straight-A student to Rothschild banker, to civil servant, to Sunday's victory as President of the sixth-biggest economy in the world seems like one of the mythic tales of success familiar to all Fren

Paris, December 1795 I wake filled with thoughts of you. Your portrait and the intoxicating evening which we spent yesterday have left my senses in turmoil. Sweet, incomparable Josephine, what a strange effect you have on my heart! Are you