Hollande Eschews Monarch-Style Presidential Monument in Crisis

French presidents, like the nation’s kings before them, have a tradition of commissioning grandiose monuments to be remembered by. That may end with the current occupant of the presidential Elysee Palace.

Francois Mitterrand ordered up the glass pyramid at the Louvre museum, Jacques Chirac directed the construction of the Quai Branly native arts gallery, while Nicolas Sarkozy pushed “Le Grand Paris,” an expansion of the French capital to fulfill a dream of King Henri IV.