Just returned from a (too!) short weekend break to Paris. With a group of friends I travel for a long weekend (usually Thursday to Sunday) each year around this time. Last year we went to Flanders, the year before to the border area of Groningen (North Netherlands) and Germany. Both quite rural areas with only small cities, so this time we felt we should go for a really big city. Most of our group are seeing geography, planning and sociology not only as a study or job, but also as a hobby. So we combine the obvious touristic 'must-sees' with 'off-the-beaten-track' sites that we read about in scientific geography and planning journals and/or heard about in lectures at university.

We saw and did a lot, much more than would fit this modest blog format. So let me pick one feature instead which keeps amazing me every time I visit Paris: the Grands Projets left by past French presidents. We saw the Park de Bercy and the Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand, both the heritage of this quite small guy with a big ego...Well, I guess this big ego is a characteristic that all French presidents have in common  

I liked the Park de Bercy, that is, the park itself, much less the pretty ugly multisports stadium. I had much more mixed emotions about the Bibliotheque across the Seine. The pedestrian bridge leading towards it is a nice experience, but when you start to get really close to the four towers of the Bibliotheque, you start to feel very small! It is above all very very big and impressive, not at all welcoming its visitors. Maybe intimidating is the right word for it. There will probably be many thousands of books inside, but how many people would dare to go in and look for them?

I wonder what Jacques Chirac is planning to leave as a reminder of his presidency. My guess is, he wants to exceed Mitterand and build something even bigger and more impressive. Whatever it will be, will Parisians be proud of it or happy with it? My guess is some will be, since they like to see Paris is the centre of the world or even the universe. But most Parisians will probably prefer something accessible, useful, and maybe even small for a change!