The French Institute of Greece paid tribute to Mikis Theodarakis on its website on Thursday following news of his passing.
"Freedom, music and politics: for Mikis Theodorakis, these three words were inextricably linked with Paris and France. Mikis Theodorakis is immortal," the French Institute statement concluded.
The Institute page posted a photograph of Theodorakis after he was awarded with the Order of the Legion of Honor (Commander) French State decoration.
France was Mikis Theodorakis' second home since the '50s, and France offered him a refuge during the Greek dictatorship, the French Institute of Greece said, honoring the great Greek composer with global recognition who died on Thursday.
At the French Embassy event in 2007, Theodorakis himself had noted that his most popular songs in Greece were written in Paris, where both his children were born, the Institute said.
He also recalled his friendship with Francois Mitterrand and their long conversations that he described as "a school of philosophical aesthetics and political wisdom."
READ: Mikis Theodorakis: Flags To Fly At Half-mast During Three-day National Mourning
