It would be impossible to overestimate the depth of the embarrassment the French feel about Dominique Strauss-Kahns spectacularly sleazy fall from grace. Yet the nation is agog at the prospect of a consolation prize: The appointment of Ms Christine Lagarde, Frances Finance Minister, to replace him as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Ms Lagarde seems to be the woman without enemies. She is supported by an unlikely alliance of her German counterpart, Wolfgang Schauble and Britains George Osborne, who doubtless admires her passion for Hayekian economics.

Despite their reservations about a European stitch-up, the Brazilians and Chinese seem to be warming to her.

All this is quite a triumph for a near-unknown, who spent her entire career in one of Americas largest law firms, and only took a junior Cabinet post in 2005 – and for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the man who four years ago made her the first female Finance Minister in the entire G8.

Yet Ms Lagarde has a track record of terrifying competence. The elegant 55-year-old (still a size eight) is trilingual in French, English and Spanish. A former scholarship student, champion synchronised swimmer and scout troop leader, she joined the firm of Baker-McKenzie straight out of law school, rising to become its chairman before jumping ship to enter politics.

Part of the secret of Ms Lagardes success is that she maintains complete control over her image. She has been married twice, before settling down with an old friend from university whom she met again six years ago. But neither of her former husbands – the mysterious Monsieur Lagarde, who fathered her two sons, or Mr Eacran Gilmour, nationality uncertain, who runs companies in Poland – is even mentioned in her official biography or Whos Who listing.

She is also a first-rate television performer, capable of showing up for an interview with the United States comic Jon Stewart wearing a Gallic beret and play-acting the caricature Frenchman. It is possible she made the outfit herself – she has been known to run up smart dresses on her mothers old sewing machine – but, generally, she favours severe Armani and Chanel suits, Hermes handbags and discreet scarves.

In doing so, she embodies a distinctive chic miles away from the bling of the early Sarkozy presidency, which has made her a regular in the pages of the glossy magazines.

Her focus, though, has always been on her work: Even the supercilious enarques, Frances civil service mandarins, value her.

In addition to her competence, explains one Elysee aide, she always deals with challenges or feuds herself, never asking for support from the President (in contrast to all too many of Frances political divas). She is the least heavy-maintenance in the entire Cabinet, he gushes.

Although she has few enemies, those who have crossed Ms Lagarde share the shell-shocked look of someone who has been hit by a semi-articulated lorry.

Her junior minister for foreign trade – a job she had herself held – found himself shorn of most of his sensitive work soon after Ms Lagarde decided he was a lightweight. Shes always smiling, always polite but she is an American lawyer at heart – a killer shark, says a former Ministry of Finance official, who was fired for not showing up at her job enough.

Outside of France, Ms Lagarde is known as a networker among the worlds most powerful women, championing quiet affirmative action when needed to break the glass ceiling.

She has been called the rock star of international finance but she is more the Coco Chanel, preferring to build consensus and reach elegant solutions to testosterone-fuelled posturing. (Famously, she said that if Lehman Brothers had been called Lehman Sisters, it might not have imploded.)

It is, however, that preference for arbitration over conflict that could derail her IMF candidacy.

As Finance Minister, Ms Lagarde put an end to a legal battle over the near-collapse of Credit Lyonnais in the 90s – but Frances official Court of Audits has now indicated that the plaintiff received too much in compensation and questioned Ms Lagardes decision to overrule her bureaucrats. Piquantly, they will announce whether a judicial case will result on June 10, the very day when the IMF will name its next boss.

Still, do the magistrates really want to dash Frances hope of saving the IMF job for La Patrie?

If they decide against a court case and Lagarde does get the job, then President Sarkozy will doubtless contemplate the turn in his fortunes with glee. Ten days ago, his poll numbers were burning holes in the Elysee carpets. Now his most dangerous presidential competitor is facing a long term in jail; the Socialists are about to tear themselves to pieces; his wife is awaiting the birth of a son and receiving rave reviews for her luminous performance in Woody Allens new film Paris at Midnight and he has even come across as lovable in La Conquete, a The Deal-style biopic about his 2007 election campaign.

As everyone, even Les Rosbifs, lines up to back his Finance Minister to blaze a feminist trail at the worlds financial watchdog, Le President must be feeling that there is a God after all. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH