Come January 19 2009, it will have been 20 years since the then-president of France, François Mitterrand, visited Bulgaria and participated in what have become symbolic happenings for the country: a breakfast at the French embassy in Sofia with 12 Bulgarian intellectuals (or "dissidents", depending on whom is asked), and a talk at Sofia University.

The French embassy in Bulgaria is marking the event with a series of events, ambassador Etienne de Poncins said at a news conference at the French Residence on December 19, noting that that week also co-incided with the end of France's rotating European Union Presidency.

From today's perspective, it could seem that Mitterrand's presence in Bulgaria was simply a formal visit of a head of state. In January 1989, however, it was the first time that a French head of state had visited Bulgaria, with the breakfast, the student lecture and the visit to Plovdiv being historic occurrences. In addition, the meeting with the students at Sofia University was perhaps the first "free" dialogue, De Poncins said, to have occurred in the 45 years that Bulgaria was a communist state - students, instead of asking questions that State Security had prepared for them, put forth matters from their own minds, asking questions that no governmental agency had ever anticipated.

The breakfast, too, was seen as revolutionary. No records have been made available of the conversations that ensued.

For the celebrations in 2009, the programme includes a re-enacting of the breakfast at the French Residence, with still-living participants - artist Svetlin Roussev, Bulgaria's first democratically elected president (1990/97) Zhelyu Zhelev, present State Administration Minister Nikolai Vassilev and Mitterrand's foreign minister Roland Dumas, among others -  having been invited and planning to attend.

Members of the breakfast club are expected to start arriving on January 18.

The Residence itself will be re-arranged to model the furniture and interior decoration layout of January 1989. And, De Poncins said, from January 20 to 25 2009, it will be open for the public to view.

An exhibition showing how the visit unfolded and how things have changed since will be opened, a street christened after François Mitterrand will be unveiled in Sofia (January 19) - something that Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov has "on principle" approved, De Poncins said - and, during the January 20 visit to Plovdiv, a square in front of Plovdiv University will be christened for François Mitterrand.

A book compiled by Dominique Stantchev, entitled Sur les pas de la liberté/По стъпките на свободата (Following the Steps of Freedom), has been published as well, in which persons who witnessed, participated in or were impacted by the events of January 19 1989 give testimony. Stantchev noted that the testimonies in the book follow the chronology of events.

French Institute director Bénédicte Contamin thanked the Bulgarian partners of the entire project, including Bulgarian National Television and Bulgarian news agency BTA, for working with the French embassy on access to archives of news clippings and photos, part of which will be displayed in a month.

It is hoped that the events will help to get citizens out of their daily ruts and concerns, to see what their world around them has become, De Poncins said.