"Because I'm worth it"

A family feud in one of France's richest dynasties officially ended this week when the Bettencourts, heirs to the L'Oréal cosmetics empire, signed a truce between warring mother and daughter. But France is still reeling from what the spat has revealed about the nation. It renewed accusations that Nicolas Sarkozy's France is an oligarchy, where the president's coterie of extraordinarily wealthy business friends enjoy special privileges in exchange for financial support. The case also caused outrage by exposing the widening gulf between the super-rich elite and rest of France - the upstairs-downstairs story.

In the Bettencourts' €30m mansion, secluded behind poplar trees in the rich Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, known as Sarkozy's fiefdom after his time as mayor. Here, Liliane Bettencourt, 88, the richest woman in France, is waited on by 17 staff, including chambermaids, cooks, hairdressers, nurses and a beautician who undertakes the daily "preparation of her skin" before her makeup is applied. Works by artists from Matisse to Braque line the walls. Meals are served on antique porcelain. Bettencourt's fortune exceeds €17bn (£14bn.

The daughter, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, decided to take legal action against her mother's eccentric best friend, the photographer and artist François-Marie Banier. Her daughter filed a court case suing Banier for exploiting her mother's frail mental state. Banier already had a history of friendships with rich widows when he became Bettencourt's confidant and court jester. The one-time golden boy of 1970s Paris had partied with celebrities from Salvador Dalí and Yves Saint-Laurent to Kate Moss. Bettencourt said he made her laugh and she gave him almost €1bn worth of gifts, including paintings.

Secret recordings made by Bettencourt's butler threatened to engulf France's ruling political class. The tapes included her financial adviser instructing the confused Bettencourt to sign cheques for politicians, including Sarkozy. Bettencourt's former accountant Claire Thibout then told investigators she had been asked to prepare €150,000 in cash to be given to Sarkozy's campaign fund manager, Woerth, for the president's 2007 election campaign. Thibout added that politicians would routinely visit André Bettencourt and were handed brown envelopes of cash for their campaigns. When Sarkozy came to power, he loosened the tax system for France's super-rich, arguing that otherwise the wealthy would flee abroad. Bettencourt received a €30m rebate.