| Mitterrand's most visible legacy is the fabulous collection of public buildings erected as part of his presidential Grands Projets – "big projects". Predictably enough, these buildings, most of them architecturally radical, were at first extremely controversial. Most shocking of all to conservative Paris was I.M. Pei's glass pyramid, erected in the very heart of the historic Louvre palace. It is a testament to a new spirit in the city that most Parisians have now taken this symbol of thrusting modernity to their hearts, along with the beautiful Institut du Monde Arabe in the Quartier Latin. Another grand projet, however, has proved less successful: the Opéra Bastille, which Paris-based novelist Edmund White has described as resembling "a cow palace in Fort Worth". When architects originally submitted their designs for the opera house, the models were publicly presented to the president. The story goes that Mitterrand was briefed to choose the one on the far left, by Richard Meier, but somehow got confused and picked out the one on the far right, by Carlos Ott. Two equally bombastic projects were the Grande Arche de la Défense and the Bibliothèque Nationale, the latter only completed after Mitterrand's death in 1996. It opened to praise from architects and howls of derision from librarians, who pointed out that you can't store fragile books in glass towers, exposed to all the worst that sunlight can do to ink and paper. At least the grands projets could be said to have lasting value. The bicentennial celebrations of the French Revolution, on the other hand, were the most absurd blow-out of public funds ever, symbolizing a culture industry spinning mindlessly around the vacuum at the centre of the French vision for the future. Furthermore, they highlighted the contrast between the unemployed and homeless begging on the streets and the limitless cash available for prestige projects.
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