...Carla and Nicolas, in happier times. Courtesy AP

President Obama just got back to France after having a late night dinner with other leaders of NATO in Germany.  The social event was held at a casino in Baden-Baden, and when it was time to leave, Obama’s motorcade picked him up right at the front door. We were rolling, and then, suddenly, we weren’t. Press Bus 3, the vehicle carrying your Gaggler, ended up stuck right at red carpet where leaders were walking down to catch their ride. And who did we cut off? Right outside our window, we spied French President Nicolas Sarkozy and wife, Carla Bruni. And, for the record, they did not look happy to be cut off by a bunch of reporters.

...Marine One flies from France to Germany, 4/3

Your Gaggler apologizes for her sporadic posting this week. For the last three days, we’ve been the magazine travel pool reporter, which means we’ve spent most of the last 72 hours chasing President Obama around. Literally. Just a few hours ago, your Gaggler was openly mocked by a crowd of Germans gathered to see Obama when she huffed and puffed up the equivalent of a steep three-story staircase here in Baden-Baden to catch the president meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (Oh you think that’s funny? You try sprinting up a staircase in under a minute on no sleep, people. It’s not easy.) We’ve chased him in tiny, scratched up mini-vans. And we’ve chased him by helicopter, twice—once in London and again this afternoon when Obama flew from France to Germany. We thought it might be fun just to share some of our photos from this week. These are hardly professional photos--just our photo diary. Usually we take these to try to explain to our friends what it is exactly that we do on these trips.

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President Obama held a news conference this morning with President Sarkozy, and to our shock, your Gaggler was the first American reporter to get a question. In his remarks, President Sarkozy had mentioned that America needed “strong allies who face up to their responsibilities.” So we asked him about France’s willingness to take on prisoners from Guantanamo Bay when it closes within the next year, and we asked Obama about his discussions with Sarkozy on the issue. Then, a funny thing happened, the audio equipment we’d been given to listen to a translation of Sarkozy’s answers from French to English went faulty, and we had no idea what he was saying. The only thing we knew is that his voice was getting louder and louder and he was leaning across his podium and pointing at us. All we could do is look thoughtful and nod. Turns out, he made some news. Yes, they'd talked about it, and yes, France will do it. After the jump, the full translation from the White House.

**Disclaimer: I harbor an odd fascination with minutiae and process. Unless you do too, you are likely to be supremely uninterested in this post.**

Almost every time members of Congress are making emphatic statements about spending on the floor, they use large graphic placards, resting on easels, to hammer their point home. It's a curious idiosyncrasy that seems awfully outdated in the age of powerpoint, and whenever I see one of these presentations, I can't help but wonder: Where do they get these giant graphs? Is there an army of interns with stencils and crayons at the ready? Or are Capitol Hill offices provided with enormous printers, cardboard and crazy glue? Or maybe, just maybe, there is a secret office, hidden in the bowels of the Cannon building where people are tasked with making these placards.... As it happens, that is exactly right. It turns out that both Houses have a dedicated Printing and Graphics Office where members can request these fancypants posters. The staff there can turn them around in less than an hour if necessary, and try their best to ensure that the colors and text are TV friendly. (Lucky for Jon Stewart.) Who knew? Another inane curiousity satisfied.

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President Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived this morning in Strasbourg, France, where the president will attend the NATO summit. The first couple drove immediately to meet up with that other first couple, Nicolas and Carla, better known as the French President Sarkozy and his wife. The two couples met up at the Palais Rohan, a gorgeous castle where Marie Antoinette once lived. Upon arrival, Sarkozy escorted Obama into courtyard where a military band first played the Star Spangled Banner and then the French national anthem. All of this to get to the most important part of this blog: Michelle and Carla’s fashion faceoff. Your Gaggler honestly thinks they both looked good but has serious envy over the First Lady’s coat. (It looks like Thakoon to us, but we’re not sure.) Photo after the jump.

Our favorites this morning from around the web:

Just find a new name
Harry Reid cautioned President Obama last week not to use the word "surge" to describe the increase in troops in Afghanistan. But even as Obama changes terms to distance himself from Bush's harsher rhetoric, the policies for operations abroad haven't changed much at all. (NY Times)

Voices of the recession
There aren't enough agents to take calls at California's unemployment offices. So people lined up to talk to someone in the flesh. Hearing all their stories conveys sentiments of the recession. (NPR)

Earth: frequent loser
Lots of winners emerged from the G-20 conference this week, but the biggest loser? The environment. Earth protection groups claim that the $1.1 trillion stimulus package agreed on by international leaders locks in a high-carbon economy for the foreseeable future. (The Guardian)

Five months to reconsider
At this point, it'll be a long shot if Norm Coleman can pull off a win in the indefatigable Minnesota senate race. But even if he does, senate Democrats are willing and able to make him wish he hadn't. (Politico)

No, thanks, I brought my own
We just love this column. We're often told that saving the world is more likely to happen at the micro consumer level than the macro government one. So how do we change what's "normal" behavior? Dave Chameides says the place to start is to risk embarrassment. (Care 2)

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Your Gaggler isn’t telling you anything you don’t know when she says Barack Obama was the biggest story at the G-20 summit. The new American president was treated like a total rock star, not just by the foreign press but even by fellow leaders. Yesterday, with reporters watching, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh even hit up Obama for an autograph. Singh’s daughter, he said, had sent along her copy of one of Obama’s books for the president to sign. With a wide grin, Obama agreed.

If you wondered how much international interest there is in Obama, just consider this: More than 600 reporters showed up yesterday to cover the president’s news conference after the G-20 had concluded. That’s more than anybody else got--even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who occupied the same room just an hour before Obama. During the presser, hundreds—and as you can see in the photo above, we literally mean hundreds—of photographers packed on the floor just in front of Obama’s podium to shoot footage of him.

But White House officials know that celebrity can only mean so much, and they have been cautioning reporters all week to take the long view of Obama’s accomplishments this week, especially on what seems to be their biggest breakthrough: some thawing in the chilly relationship with Russia. Indeed, the best measure of how Obama is doing this week on his first overseas trip may not come in weeks or even months. It may not happen until next year, when Obama attends another round of these summits, when he’s no longer the new kid.