Jacques Chirac and the great work, this is a bit of «je t’aime moi non plus». The mayor of Paris, between stainless to François Mitterrand, has long fought against the plans of the president of the Republic throughout the two septenates. It must be confessed that the socialist filled the capital building: the Grand Louvre to the Institut du monde arabe (IMA), passing by the opera Bastille, the Cité de la musique, the new national Library, the ministry of Economy and Finance, the international conference Centre… all of a sudden of billions of swiss francs, even as the country through the crisis.

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The standoff is embodied in a few folders. There is the case of colonnes de Buren . Launched in 1983 by Jack Lang, minister of Culture, under the impetus of François Mitterrand, it is about transforming the course of honour of the Royal Palace, which serve as parking at the Council of State. The project approved in 1985 by the president himself is to excavate the sub-soil of these areas and to place rows of columns, striped black and white. Outcry. In the open site, a few weeks before the legislative elections in 1986, Jacques Chirac invites himself into the battle. He asks the prefect of police in the contest of the forces of order to make the affixing of seals on the site and to the entry of the construction equipment. The works are suspended. They will resume only after the victory of the right in the elections, the new minister of Culture François Léotard finding that the demolition would be at least as expensive as the completion of work.

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Another site controversial: the new Opera Bastille. No longer music-lover, François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac sees of a very evil eye the construction of this huge building that points his nose on the place. It’s not that it disfigures the city – the project of the architect Carlos Ott is registered on a parcel quirky where only remains of a disused railway station, a cinema in ruins and a few buildings lepers. But the mobilisation of the inhabitants of the Eleventh arrondissement is enough to convince him. Instead, it defends the construction of a swimming pool, hotels and a business centre. At the Paris city hall, it is considered that it is possible to add seats in the old hall of Garnier. The crisis reached its peak when, at the government, prime minister Jacques Chirac and his minister of Culture François Léotard oppose. The first wants to bury the project, the second manages to relaunch the project so that they are completed on time in 1989, for the Bicentenary of the Revolution.

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one of The battles the most emblematic, however, of the Louvre Pyramid . Ieoh Ming Pei has planned to create a new entry of glass in the heart of the Napoleon court. The outcry is immediate. The mayor of Paris will show, however, is cautious and does not criticise publicly the idea. To diffuse the situation, Jacques Chirac demand the construction of a full scale model on the location. In may 1985, the cables are stretched in the cour Napoleon. Chirac goes to see the. «It doesn’t shock me», will comment on it to his loved ones. The case was unlocked.

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as mayor, Jacques Chirac will leave a few achievements to his city. Among the most visible, the palace Omnisport de Paris-Bercy and the Aquaboulevard . Other projects, such as the motorway network underground Laser which was to connect The Defense, Luxembourg, the Halls and the motorways A1, A6 and A13, are abandoned.

Jean Nouvel to present the model of the future musée du Quai Branly, Jacques Chirac in April 2000 at the Elysée palace. MICHEL EULER/AFP

In 1999, a competition is launched for the creation of a museum which should bring together the best of the collections of the Museum of man, national museum of african and oceanic Art of the Golden gate and borrowings or acquisitions news. The space chosen is the one that had been planned to create a Center for international conferences, project mitterrandien abandoned later in life: a beautiful square in front of the Seine, at the foot of the Eiffel tower, in front of the Palais de Tokyo. This is the museum of primitive Art or the museum of Arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas, which will only find its final name only in 2016, ten years after its inauguration: the musée du Quai Branly, Jacques Chirac. Jean Nouvel is once again at work.

Outside Paris, an achievement he will also need a lot: the Louvre-Lens first external antenna of the parisian museum, created by the regional council, and the city in the north in collaboration with the parisian institution. The president of the Republic has agreed to the installation at the heart of one of the basins of the poorest population of France.

Culture : Chirac, far from the terroir ? – Look on Figaro Live

» check out our number tribute: Jacques Chirac – 1932 / 2019