By arriving via the underground parking lot of the Evry tribunal and entering through the judges' chambers, Mrs Xaviere Tiberi, the wife of the Mayor of Paris, cheated the horde of photographers and cameramen who had waited hours for the opening of her trial.
A curt, one-page notice warned journalists that no pictures were allowed in the courtroom, and that they would be prosecuted if they disobeyed.
On the evening news, no one would see Mrs Tiberi's navy blue blazer and rope of pearls, the circles beneath her eyes, the thick pancake make-up.
Protected from the eye of the public, the first lady of Paris rose to confirm her Paris address in her gravelly, Corsican accent. Mrs Tiberi, nee Casanova, stands accused "of receiving funds that she knew to be misappropriated by Xavier Dugoin, at the expense of the Essonne collectivity . . ." the judge read. In theory, she could get 10 years in prison.
By avoiding the public entrance, Mrs Tiberi also missed seeing the reflecting pool, bridges, fountains and Japanese-style buildings of the Essonne Departmental Council where she was supposed to have worked from March until December 1994.
She admitted earlier that she had never set eyes on the council, which nonetheless paid her Ffr 205,006 (£24,600)
Like other friends and relatives of influential Gaullists who were "hired" by her co-defendant, Senator Xavier Dugoin, Mrs Tiberi paid back her ill-gotten gains. The third and fourth co-defendants, both aides to a former Gaullist minister, received much more. Dugoin, who is appealing an earlier conviction on related charges, spent more than Ffr 4 million (£480,000) of taxpayers' money on salaries for political cronies.
Among the crowd outside the courtroom were three members of the "Popular committee for the support of the mayor of Paris", led by Mr Daniel Hentze a once homeless man who now pumps petrol in the Paris town hall basement parking lot.
"Xaviere is terrific," Mr Hentze said. A few days ago, over coffee in her second floor office, Mrs Tiberi told him she was haunted by the idea of appearing before the tribunal. "People will come to insult me," Mrs Tiberi allegedly predicted. "They're going to throw eggs and tomatoes at me."
Mrs Tiberi has told journalists that she "had to take precautions against physical elimination". Perhaps that is why - in two separate searches - police found unauthorised weapons in the Tiberis' apartment. The couple's former Gaullist allies - including President Jacques Chirac - are beginning to snub them. At the heart of the trial is the party network that kept Mr Chirac in the mayor's office for 18 years, then sent him to the Elysee Palace.
Dugoin's new lawyer asked that the trial be postponed, but postponement was the usual Dugoin tactic, used four time already, the prosecutor noted. The last time, Dugoin said he was suffering from nervous depression. He then went hiking in Crete.
Mrs Tiberi's lawyer asked that the trial be annulled on technical grounds. An appeals court had disqualified her 36-page report on "decentralised co-operation" as evidence.
Mr Laurent Davenas, the prosecutor who scheduled the trial, violated judicial secrecy by publishing a book about the case, Letter from the Himalayas.
Mrs Tiberi paid back the monies she received - so why hadn't proceedings against her been dropped, as they had for others?
After an afternoon of procedural wrangling, the prosecutor spoke.
"There doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm on the part of the defendants to address the fundamental questions of this case, regarding their fake employment," he began. Mrs Tiberi took off her garish 1950s style eyeglasses, leaned on her fist and stared at him with hatred.