De Gaulle memorial opens in Paris

President Sarkozy praised De Gaulle's political courage

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has unveiled an audiovisual monument to the wartime French leader and former President, Gen Charles de Gaulle.

The memorial at the army museum in Paris - Les Invalides - opens to the public on Saturday.

Three doors symbolise turning points in De Gaulle's life, including his 1940 radio address from the BBC in London.

The other two were: the liberation of Paris in August 1944 and the foundation of France's Fifth Republic in 1958.

The president of the Charles de Gaulle Foundation, Pierre Mazeaud, said the memorial gave the general his rightful place alongside two other giants of French history - Napoleon and Louis XIV.

President Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party is the successor to the Gaullist RPR.

His predecessor, Jacques Chirac, who launched the memorial project, attended the inauguration in Paris on Friday.