In December 2010, Sarkozy returned the favour when Assad and his wife Asma were treated to a high-profile official visit to France complete with glittering reception at the Elysee palace. In a speech to the prestigious Academie Diplomatique Internationale, Asma Assad spoke of an open and engaging Syria, whose society and culture was constantly being renewed.
For the French, Syria's close relations with Iran, with Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip meant Damascus was a must-have partner if Paris was to maintain influence in the Mideast.
"France tried hard to renew the traditional links in the Middle East during that period," recalled a former Damascus-based French diplomat. Defying objections from Washington, France was playing the role of guide to Assad's opening up to the West, an initiative sweetened by his Western education and British-born wife.
Today, diplomatic relations between Damascus and Paris have all but evaporated and even among the Syrian elite which is in love with France's culture and language its clout is at the lowest ebb, another diplomat noted. Last week, France cut its diplomatic presence in Syria, the ambassador to Damascus returned to Paris and Air France suspended its Paris-Damascus air links.
In its place, Syria's big friends are exclusively Iran, Russia and to a lesser extent China. Those who are supporting the opposition are regional players such as Turkey and the diplomatically ambitious Gulf state of Qatar.
France's few remaining options include wielding its clout in Europe, where it has led a collective downgrading of diplomatic links between European Union states and Damascus. In February, the EU introduced a 12th tranche of sanctions against Syria, freezing the assets of seven Syrian government officials and the country's central bank, banning the purchase of precious metals and gems from the country, and halting all Syrian cargo flights from European Union countries. Before the unrest erupted, the EU accounted for more than a third of Syrian exports.
"We are searching truly for a political solution," said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt who insists the EU's priority is to stop Syria from descending into full-scale sectarian war. "Whether that is possible or not remains to be seen."
But this remains a far step from really turning the screw, says Helen Michou of the Madrid-based think tank Fride. "Support for an 'inclusive process to take the country forward' as voiced by [EU foreign policy chief] Catherine Ashton on her recent trip to Washington lacks any concrete proposals. The EU must not be tempted by neutrality," warned Michou.
Military actions seem almost impossible even though Britain's Royal Air Force has a sizeable airbase on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus just 200km from Syria.
Memories of last year's successful UN-sanctioned action by France and Britain against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi are being replaced by warnings against any attempt to impose even a no-fly zone in Syria.
Aaron David Miller, a former adviser to Republican and Democratic US secretaries of state, said Syria was a more important place than Libya and the consequences of sustained sectarian conflict there were greater.
"The circumstances and conditions that made intervention succeed in one case aren't now present in the other, and may never be," he wrote in the analytical publication Foreign Policy.
"Great powers behave inconsistently, sometimes hypocritically. Their power and size have given them that luxury and latitude - it's part of their job description."
