The country will offer an opulent stage for voices from across Europe, but at home few critical voices are tolerated.
Occasionally, I accompanied him on his rounds, and stared through soapy windows at what struck me as opulent luxury.
I remember sitting in my parents' council house in Carshalton and hearing about the incredibly opulent funeral of Queen Mary and thinking, no matter how rich or important you are, life always ends the same way.
Opulent clock towers, grand halls, building facades covered in splendour and stone.
Trailing Duvalier's old mother with them, they lived in opulent hotels and villas on the French Riviera, drawing on the $100m or so they had pillaged from state funds.
That will be the major talking point when the sport travels to Monaco for next weekend's grand prix, with the opulent surroundings providing a poignant backdrop for those teams fighting for survival.
Or that Scotland, avid participant for over two centuries in the splendour and folly of empire, as the opulent houses near Glasgow and the Indian cemeteries full of young Campbells attest, should now wish to disown its senior partner.
Although his opulent house was featured on MTV's "Cribs" last year, Hamlin is leaning against doing a reality show on his life off the track.
All of this – the rather opulent but segregated hall, the four-piece band blaring out Afghan party tunes for the dancing guests, the mountains of food – was not going to come without a big price tag.
Diaghilev was bankrupted by the failure of his opulent production.
She was struck first by the humour of Ruhl's version – it's much funnier than she expected it to be, funnier, she suspects, than Sally Potter's opulent 1992 film version, in which Tilda Swinton starred, though she has refrained from watching this in full.
