Istanbul exhibit in Paris attracts huge crowds

The exhibit "From Byzantium to Istanbul: The Harbor of two Continents," held as part of the ongoing Season of Turkey in France, attracted great interest before closing this week. More than 200,000 people visited the exhibit, which was jointly inaugurated in October by President Abdullah Gul and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy, aiming to better acquaint the French nation with Istanbul's historical assets and Turkish culture, and help dispel its skepticism of Turkey's European Union accession bid.