The Head of State took advantage of this event to launch a “call for the mobilization” of “artists and creators” so that they are “forces of proposal and training” to allow France to get out of the current difficult period, marked by “a kind of gloom”.

“We need you (…) Thank you for inventing and reinventing things”, declared Emmanuel Macron, addressing the representatives of the 3rd edition of France Design Week, invited to the Elysée in the company of his wife Brigitte and the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak.

The new table, “both beautiful and functional”, according to the Head of State, was used for the first time in the morning on the occasion of the traditional Council of Ministers on Wednesday morning in the Murat lounge.

Until then, the table of the Council of Ministers had never been designed by designers: purely functional and dismantled each week, it was made up of boards placed on trestles and covered “with an awful felt”, according to the president.

Light-coloured, the Medulla table (“marrow” in Latin) is made up of 20 rectangular extensions which fit together, allowing its length to be adapted to the number of participants in the meeting.

According to its designers, it was designed “like an assembly of vertebrae”, modules covered with floated concrete that can be assembled and disassembled quickly and then transported in the lifts of the Elysée. Eleven craft businesses, based in several regions, participated in its manufacture.

Its four design students, graduates of the National School of Applied Arts and Crafts (Ensaama), were selected following a competition launched in 2019 by the Mobilier national and open to students from five establishments. offering design training.

Inaugurated as Heritage Days approach this weekend, this equipment marks a new stage in the modernization of the Elysée Palace launched by the Macron couple since 2017 and marked in particular by the renovation of the village hall. The Elysée is “a place that we are constantly trying to reinvent” by relying “on French know-how”, summed up Emmanuel Macron.