"The opportunity to implement France's participation at the Universal Exposition of Shanghai from the beginning to the end was a fantastic experience. My team and I worked very hard on this project for three years.

I remember asking the architect Jacques Ferrier to set himself the objective of not having visitors to our pavilion queue for more than an hour. Given France's appeal to the Chinese public - her art de vivre, her refinement, her culture and her gastronomy - I am convinced that this easy access was one of the reasons for the France Pavilion's success.

What touched me the most was seeing tens of thousands of elderly people, often from the countryside, enter our pavilion with the smile of a child, as if on the brink of a wondrous journey. As our aim was to bring happiness to our visitors, I tend to think we achieved this objective.

I had a difficult time when the Icelandic volcanic eruption prevented flights from taking off in Europe, and I needed six flights to bring in the paintings from the muse d'Orsay, as well as Rodin's Age of Bronze, a statue, which, I must emphasize, was shown at the Universal Exposition of Paris in 1900.

I also had a moment of intense pride when hosting the visit of President Hu Jintao to our pavilion to admire these masterpieces of French art on April 29.

We are now coming to an end. It is with gravity that I tell myself that it will not be so soon before we see another World Expo of this amplitude and impact for its organizing country. Bombay or Sao Paulo can no doubt match Shanghai, but these cities have not had the chance to be chosen by the Bureau of International Expositions.

(China Daily 10/29/2010)