PARIS — Segolene Royal, the doyenne of the French left, suffered an embarrassing blow to her image as a presidential candidate yesterday when she was accused of tax dodging.

Faced with taunts about being a gauche caviar, the Gallic equivalent of a champagne socialist, she denied being rich, instead claiming that she was just “well-off.”

Not only does she have part ownership in three impressive homes with her boyfriend, the Socialist Party chairman Francois Hollande, but the two have set up a real estate company to manage the properties.

This has enabled them to reduce the amount that they pay in l’impot de solidarité sur la fortune, or ISF, a high tax imposed on anyone with assets of more than $985,000.

The information, which originally emerged on Internet sites critical of the left, are particularly embarrassing for Ms. Royal because she recently launched a tirade against Johnny Hallyday, the rock star, for moving to Switzerland to avoid high French taxes.

Ms. Royal has also pledged to overturn tax cuts imposed since 2002, blocking a law limiting them to 60% of income.

Mr. Hollande last week risked alienating the middle classes even further by proposing raising taxes on salaries above about $5,000 a month. Last year, he famously told a television chat show audience: “I do not like the rich.”

Reluctantly confessing that they were liable for ISF, the couple confirmed that they owned a flat in the affluent Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, and houses on the Riviera and in Ms. Royal’s constituency of Melle in the Deux-Sevres department.

Launching a defense of her wealth yesterday, Ms. Royal, 51, said: “I started my life with nothing, so this is the fruit of my labor after 30 years of professional life.

“I am well-off, and I think it is normal to pay the wealth tax.”

Referring to her upbringing as one of eight children of a notoriously thrifty army officer, she spoke about her “hard childhood,” adding: “I have learned about honesty and truth.”

Ms. Royal, who valued her share of assets at around $492,000, said she and Mr. Hollande would pay $1,200 in wealth tax for 2006, which is imposed at a rate of 0.55–1.8%.

Ms. Royal also accused activists from the Union for a Populist Majority Party — led by Nicolas Sarkozy, her right-wing presidential opponent — of trying to smear her.

“The campaign launched by the UMP is a dishonest campaign … a campaign of thugs,” she said. Mr. Hollande said he was suing Jacques Godfrain, the center-right deputy, and La Depeche Midi, a regional newspaper, for repeating the claims about their alleged tax-dodging.