The Automotrice à grande vitesse, AGV is a high-speed electric multiple unit (EMU) designed and built by Alstom.

Alstom offers the AGV in configurations from seven to fourteen carriages. The trains are constructed from units comprising three cars, each with one transformer and two traction electronics packages located underneath the cars, and from single-car trailers. A 7-car unit has two 3-car modules separated by one trailer and seating for around 245, an 11-car unit has three 3-car modules with two trailer cars with seating for around 446. The maximum commercial speed is 360 km/h (220 mph).

According to Alstom, the advantages of the AGV are: increased seating area per train length (compared to a single-deck TGV); lower maintenance costs due to jacobs bogie articulation giving a low number of bogies per train; and higher energy efficiency, lower noise, and more space in the vestibules due to high power-to-weight ratio, high-efficiency permanent-magnet synchronous motors and other design improvements.

Nicolas Sarkozy (pronounced [ni.kɔ.la saʁ.kɔ.zi] ( listen), born Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa; 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as the 23rd President of the French Republic from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012.

Before his presidency, he was leader of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Under Jacques Chirac's presidency he served as Minister of the Interior in Jean-Pierre Raffarin's (UMP) first two governments (from May 2002 to March 2004), then was appointed Minister of Finances in Raffarin's last government (March 2004 to May 2005) and again Minister of the Interior in Dominique de Villepin's government (2005–2007).

Sarkozy was also president of the General council of the Hauts-de-Seine department from 2004 to 2007 and mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of France from 1983 to 2002. He was Minister of the Budget in the government of Édouard Balladur (RPR, predecessor of the UMP) during François Mitterrand's last term.

In foreign affairs, he promised a strengthening of the entente cordiale with the United Kingdom and closer cooperation with the United States. During his term, he faced the late-2000s financial crisis (followed by the recession and the debt crisis caused by it) and the Arab Spring (especially in Tunisia, Libya, and Syria). He also married Italian-French singer-songwriter Carla Bruni on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris.