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.
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