Gallic grandeur

摘要

Amid controversy over immigration and the proper role of ethnography, Jacques Chirac prepares to open a major new museum in the city that launched his career. Tt has become a tradition under France's fifth republic for each president to leave his architectural imprint on the Paris skyline. Georges Pompidou had his Pompidou Centre, completed after his death. Francois Mitterrand sprinkled across the French capital a pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre, the Bastille opera house, a grand arch and a national library. Now, in the twilight of his presidency, Jacques Chirac too is about to have his turn.