Paris boasts so many historic monuments it has been called a living museum. However, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is under attack for seeking to lease out the capital’s heritage to luxury hotel chains.
Historians are outraged at government plans to rent out one of France’s most important palaces, L’hotel de la Marine in Place de La Concorde. It was the site of the first riots that led to the French revolution in 1789 and remains a symbol of the nation’s bloody history. King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were guillotined outside it.
It was designed by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel and is one of the best examples of 18th-century royal architecture and its intact collection of furniture and decor is unrivalled. However, the state-owned building could be transformed into luxury boutiques, plush suites for billionaires or a hotel with pool.
Photo: Reuters
Last month a discreet ad was posted on the site of the budget ministry advertising the building for long-term lease to private firms, which will be encouraged to renovate it.
The French navy, based in the building since the revolution, will leave in 2014 for more modern headquarters. The French government has complained it cannot afford the upkeep of the landmark, with its hundreds of rooms and grandiose courtyards.
In an open letter to the French president, published by Le Monde newspaper, a group of influential historians said they were “revolted” by the plan to “flog” the palace and reduce it to a “commercial circus.”
“France has not lost its memory, it is selling it!” they said.
Art experts say the rent deal, billed as an open contest, is a stitch-up favoring a multinational finance group advised by a former culture minister.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS