Fans of France’s first lady Carla Bruni were so curious to take a look at her new Web site that they crashed it on the day of its launch – too many users tried to access carlabrunisarkozy.org yesterday. The buzz surrounding Bruni’s site is more evidence that politicians’ wives are using social networking mediums as much as their husbands are.

Bruni’s site was designed to highlight snippets of her life with President Sarkozy in addition to publicizing her charity work. It follows a series of online interviews in which Bruni introduces the couple’s pet dogs and explains what’s in her handbag. Now, the Guardian says carlabrunisarkozy.org is a medium through which “the Élysée is seeking to capitalize on her Internet potential.”

Internet potential that the Bling-Bling Sarkozy had yet to capitalize on himself: He caught onto the Facebook wave belatedly and has decided to finally use Twitter to update followers from the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December – but he will not tweet himself; his advisors will.

The first family of France had been impressed by another woman’s foray into blogging: Gordon Brown’s wife Sarah has long used Twitter and her own WordPress.com site to recount G8 meetings and trips she’s taken with her husband.