Royal's home turf - a snapshot of a future France?

ANGOULEME, France (Reuters) - For the past three years, Segolene Royal has ruled over a picturesque French region best known for its goat's cheese, Cognac and beautiful coastline.

Now the Socialist leader is bidding to extend her reign across France as the country's first woman president, and she hopes to take many of her regional inventions with her.

Royal, 53, running in a tight race against conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, has said she wants to make France fairer, greener and more transparent, but has refused thus far to outline concrete proposals on many issues.

To gauge what might follow the campaign rhetoric, analysts point to her policies in western Poitou-Charentes, a region based midway along France's Atlantic Coast.

Promising a "more efficient society," Royal has made regional aid subject to firms promising not to lay off workers, has subsidized energy-saving initiatives and introduced a touch of grassroots democracy at schools.

She has also encouraged people to "eat chicken twice a week" to support local agriculture.

Colleagues and rivals say Royal has made her mark in a relatively short amount of time, but they disagree over how effective she has been and some suggest that behind her ever-present smile lies an authoritarian commander.

"She's a very strong woman. But I wonder whether she likes people. Conviviality is not her thing," said Henri de Richemont, the leader of the region's conservative opposition.

ANY ONE FOR POOL?

Given her strict leadership style, it is perhaps ironic that her proposals to boost democracy have dominated the headlines in Poitou-Charentes and beyond.

One such "direct democracy" initiative allows students, parents and teachers to decide in debates how to use some 10 million euros ($13 million) of the region's education budget.

In Paris, Royal's ideas to strengthen democracy have stirred unease and her proposal to have lawmakers held accountable to citizen juries were derided as populist by friend and foe alike.