National Library sights in France
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Bibliothèque Nationale de France
The four glass towers of the €2 billion National Library of France – conceived as a ‘wonder of the modern world’ and opened in 1995 – were one of President Mitterand’s most ambitious and costliest grands projets. It’s well worth visiting for its excellent temporary exhibitions (entrance E) revolve around ‘the word’ – from storytelling to bookbinding and French heroes.
The national library contains around 12 million tomes stored on some 420km of shelves and can hold 2000 readers and 2000 researchers.
No expense was spared to carry out the library’s grand design, which many claimed defied logic. While books and historical documents are shelved in the…
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