It was 20 years ago today, January 19 2009, that the French president François Mitterrand, on his "other Europe" visit to Bulgaria, had breakfast with a group of Bulgarian intellectuals and "dissidents". More than just a meal, the gathering at the French embassy was a chance for free dialogue to take place between East and West, for the countries to know each other as faces, and not just words on a map.

The French embassy in Sofia is now holding a series of events to commemorate this date. In addition to a re-enactment of the breakfast with those of the original members - on the Bulgarian side, these were Angel Wagenstein, Barouk Shamliev, Koprinka Chervenkova, Nikolai Vassilev, Ivailo Petrov, Alexei Sheludko, Radoi Ralin, Yordan Radichkov, Blaga Dimitrova, Svetlin Roussev, Stefan Prodev and Zhelyu Zhelev - who are still alive on the 19th, a commemorative conference on the visit is taking place at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and streets will be christened for Mitterrand in Sofia and in Plovdiv.

The January 19 colloquium is to be opened at 2.30pm by Bulgarian Speaker of Parliament Georgi Pirinski, Zhelev, the first president of post-communist Bulgaria, and French ambassador Etienne de Poncins. Participants in the conference include the historian François Frison-Roch and the state councillor Jean Musitelli, who was Mitterrand's diplomatic advisor, talking on the political context of Bulgarian and the Eastern Bloc in 1989; Bulgarian culture minister under socialism Georgi Yordanov; and Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin, former French foreign minister Roland Dumas and former French ambassador to Bulgaria Bertrand de Lataillade talking on Mitterrand's visit and the evolution of French-Bulgarian relations. Sessions will be interspersed with projections of French news clips from the era and television clips of Mitterrand's concurrent visit to Sofia University.

Entrance is open to all and Bulgarian and French interpretation is assured.

In addition, the French Residence in Sofia has had its interior furnishings re-arranged to resemble how it was in 1989. It is open for visits by the public from January 20 to 23 from 9am to noon and from 1pm to 5pm, and on January 24 and 25 from 10am to 5pm. Presented will be documents from the era, photos, diplomatic telegrams, letters and newspapers.