Solesmes

She did not take part in a local council meeting at Solesmes, near the couple’s chateau in the Sarthe, where she is an elected councillor, on Monday evening.

In the tiny adjacent town of Solesmes, home to the Fillon family manor, pig farmers appreciative of Fillon’s largesse to the region proudly protect the family’s privacy.

In 2014, she was elected as a local councillor in Solesmes, western France, where the couple lives in a 14th-century château bought in 1984.

When French presidential contender François Fillon marked the Feast of the Assumption last summer, he attended Mass at Solesmes Abbey, a Benedictine monastery known for defying the anticlerical purges of the French Revolution.

In August, Mr. Fillon held a rally near his hometown, where he warned of a France “ashamed” of its history and reminded the crowd he had recently celebrated the Feast of the Assumption at the nearby Abbey of Solesmes.