"The fierce debates aroused by President Francois Mitterrand's bold decision to have the vast forecourt of the Louvre embellished by a seventy-foot-high pyramid made of metal wiring and glass are only the latest episode in a long series of intellectual battles between the ancients and the moderns. "

- I think that this quote is just one of many examples of how usually the most famous buildings start out as a major controversy. When the Louvre's pyramid was first built, many people thought it was ugly, and not like usual museums. They hated it, but soon grew to love it. This has affected the culture in France because I believe it has allowed people to move from what we know, to accepting what is modern.

-Another example is the Eiffel Tower. Say, if some architect came to your favorite city, and built a 200 foot metal tower that looked like it wasn't finished when the architect said it was, you would probably throw a fit. You would think it was ugly unless you changed your cultural upbringing and accepted the fact that the Eiffel Tower is beautiful.

-The Centre Pompidou is a new art museum built in France in 1971 by Richard Rogers & Renzo Piano. As you can see by the picture below, It looks unfinished on the outside. Many French people hated the way the museum looked. But as culture changes, so does architecture and what we view as beautiful.