PARIS (AFP) -- A nostalgic France today marks a decade since the death from cancer of Francois Mitterrand, with polls showing a majority of the public looking back on his 14 years as president as a golden age compared to the travails of today.

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 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."

The emotional highpoint of the commemorations takes place in Mitterrand's home-town of Jarnac, in western France, where hundreds of Socialist Party (PS) faithful and top brass will gather alongside family members at a wreath-laying ceremony in the local cemetery.

The house where Mitterrand was born in October 1916, which was bought by the municipality last year and converted into a museum, will then be formally opened to the public.

Further events are planned in other 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 in Paris.

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

With hundreds of books on the market -- and last year a successful film about his last days -- the appetite for Mitterrandia is as strong as ever, fed by raging arguments over his complex political legacy.

When he came to power he was hailed as the savior 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 nationalizations, returning France to mainstream budget orthodoxy. Many on the left never forgave him.

Later, his second seven-year term in office was overshadowed by a series of money scandals, as well as accusations of monarchical self-aggrandizement. Such was the court-like secrecy that the existence of his teenage daughter Mazarine was only made public in 1994.