Hundreds of the Socialist faithful joined the party's top brass and family members for a wreath-laying ceremony during the morning in the cemetery at Jarnac, Mitterrand's hometown in the Cognac region of western France.

The house where he was born in October 1916, which has been bought by the muncipality, was then officially inaugurated as a museum.

Other events were held in places associated with the late president, including Chateau-Chinon in Burgundy where he served as mayor from 1959, Latche in the wooded southwest where he kept a country home, and party headquarters (PS) in Paris.

Also in Paris, Socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoe launched a series of walks to visit Mitterrand's contributions to the capital's architectural landscape, include the glass pyramid in the Louvre museum, the Opera at Bastille, the Arab World Institute and the French National Library.

Two opinion surveys in the last week placed Mitterrand alongside Charles de Gaulle as by far the most popular French presidents of modern times -- leaving the incumbent Jacques Chirac and other contenders Georges Pompidou and Valery Giscard D'Estaing floundering in the rear.

According to the Sofres poll in the Nouvel Observateur magazine, nearly two-thirds of the population have a positive memory of the Mitterrand years from 1981 to 1995, and a similar proportion -- including a majority of right-wing voters -- say he will have a "great" place in history.

After a year marred by urban riots, the shock rejection of the EU constitution, doggedly high unemployment and the loss to London of the 2012 Olympics, the country appears to enjoy reminiscing on a time when self-doubt and gloom were not yet the national condition.

"People are longing for a time when France was more powerful, when it felt btter about itself. Mitterrand was the last king of France," said Jacques Attali, a close adviser to the late president and author of a recent bestseller on his political mentor.

"People miss him because he embodies a period when France still walked tall in the world," said Ophelie Wallaert, a 21-year-old journalism student. "We have all become political nostalgics."

When he came to power Mitterrand was hailed as the saviour of the French left, overcoming its traditional divisions by posing as a candidate of modernity. His first years saw major changes such as the end of capital punishment, devolution of power to the regions and the 39-hour work week.

But in 1983 he was forced by economic constraints to abandon his policies of high spending and nationalisations, returning France to mainstream budget orthodoxy. Many on the left never forgave him.

Later his presidency was overshadowed by money scandals and accusations of monarchical self-aggrandisement. Such was the court-like secrecy that the existence of his teenage daughter Mazarine was only made public in 1994.

His dark side was also revealed in scandals such as the 1985 Rainbow Warrior Affair -- in which the French secret service bombed a Greenpeace ship in New Zealand -- and revelations about his collaboration with the wartime Vichy regime.

Such ambiguities never deterred the loyalist inner guard, led today by the former culture minister Jack Lang, who described "Mitterrandisme" this week as "the power of the will and the certainty that one can move mountains by force of spirit."

But politicians on the right are scornful, with Luc Chatel -- spokesman of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) -- arguing that "many of the great problems of today's society are linked to choices made in the 1980s -- bad choices that contradicted economic common sense."

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