French President Emmanuel Macron looked to cement his legacy, and take on political opponents, with the inauguration on Monday of a former royal palace that has been dedicated to the French language, deep in far-right heartland.
Modern French presidents love a cultural "grand projet" - an imposing monument to "scratch" their name on history, as ex-leader François Mitterrand put it in the 1980s.
Mitterrand was an avid and controversial legacy-builder, transforming the Louvre museum with a glass pyramid, and erecting the vast Opera Bastille and National Library.
Other examples include the modern art museum built by Georges Pompidou in central Paris, and Quai Branly culture museum of Jacques Chirac on the banks of the River Seine.
The practice fell out of fashion this century, but has been revived by Macron, who was already eyeing up a crumbling chateau in the small town of Villers-Cotterêts, located in northern France, while still a presidential candidate in 2017.
Museum dedicated to French language
He has overseen the renovation of the Renaissance castle, completed in 1539 under King Francois I, and its transformation into the Cité Internationale de la Langue Francaise, a museum celebrating the history and future of the French language.
It hopes to attract 200,000 visitors a year to its large library (replete with AI-supported suggestion engine), interactive exhibits, games and cultural events.
"All those who, around the world, work, create, think, write, play and sing in French should feel at home at Villers-Cotterets," explained the Elysee Palace in a statement.
The French language is "the greatest asset of the nation [...] and the foundation of who we are intellectually and our relations with the world," the Elysee said.
Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak added it will be "the beating heart of the Francophone world".
Il était une fois… le château de #VillersCotterêts 🏰
— Cité internationale de la langue française (@citelanguefr) October 30, 2023
Retrouvez les chapitres marquants de l’histoire de ce château devenu Cité internationale de la langue française !
⏳ Remontons le fil de cette aventure… pic.twitter.com/URqpoP6Sbl
"The region's economic and social difficulties"
The choice was also made up by "the region's economic and social difficulties", according to the Élysée.
The small town of 10,000 people, around 80 kilometres from Paris, lies deep in France's northeast where factory closures and high unemployment have made the region a stronghold of the far-right.
The town hall has been run since 2014 by Rassemblement National (RN) mayor Franck Briffaut, and in the Aisne region, Marine Le Pen came out well ahead in both rounds of the last presidential election.
The new institution aims "to show that the region's recovery does not rely on withdrawing into itself, but by greater openness," an advisor to Macron said.
Also, it underlines that France is not the most populous francophone country - that prize goes to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with its 100 million citizens.
The chateau will host the 19th summit of the francophone world next year, to which some 88 leaders are invited.
On Monday the Senate was due to debate a bill pushed by right-wing politicians aimed at "protecting the French language from the abuses of so-called 'inclusive' language".
(with AFP)
