This large building, located in the new part of the city, called Antigone, looks like an Arch of Triumph. It is curved and its façade presents a lot of curves. The only part which is not curved is above the arch. This place used to be an expensive restaurant. But a few years ago our new président de région (a position very similar to governor in the USA) decided not to let the place to the restaurant and to make it one of his offices. A very large and nice office. I suppose he already had as large an office in the Hôtel de Région, the "other" Arch of Triumph in Montpellier. The president can keep an eye on the Hôtel de Région (in the background in the lower photo) from his office in the curved building.
I was told that converting the restaurant into an office cost us a lot. In a program on TV, we learned that the brush in the toilets had cost 800 €, that is about 1,200 $. The president, reproached with spending too much public money, answered that he didn't care about the brush since he never used it. Very probably somebody gets paid to clean the toilets after he uses them.
The part of the building in the right-hand side of the photo dwells the offices of Montpellier Agglo. The Agglo is in charge of organizing the Rugby World Cup (Coupe du Monde de rugby) which will be held in France in next September. Several matches will take place in Montpellier. The city will certainly be crowded for weeks.
Note: I have found the real price of the brush and the different objects that can be found in our president's toilets: sink over 2,000 $, tap about 1,000 $, soap dish and glass holder about 600 $, paper holder about 200 $, dustbin about 160 $, mirror over 1,000 $, and the brush between 160 and 180 $, which is quite different from what I wrote in my post :-))
On "Le monde merveilleux des bobos"
