Son of the soil Who is François Bayrou, the farmer turned prime minister?

François Bayrou, the new French prime minister, calls himself a country man. A tractor-driving "son of the soil" and breeder of thoroughbreds, he has run for president three times, saying his rural roots and centrist politics led him to try to find common ground between left and right.

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Born to a family of farmers in the Béarn, Bayrou's more than 40-year political career is built on his insistence on never cutting ties to the area of his childhood at the foot of the Pyrenees in south-west France.

He grew up in the small village of Bordères, between the Catholic pilgrimage shrine of Lourdes and Nay, the birthplace of the beret. A Catholic and father of six, he still has a home in the village and is mayor of the city of Pau, 20km away.

The 73-year-old has carefully built an image as a country intellectual. When he was a child, he had a stammer and a doctor predicted he would never be able to perform on the stage, be a teacher or a politician - he later said he was proud to have done all three.