The best new exhibitions in the regions
They've just opened, far from Paris. From Chambord to Avignon, from Roubaix to the Cévennes, these are the regional exhibitions worth visiting this autumn.
SO CUTE! THE ART OF HAPPINESS AT THE LOUVRE-LENS
A hedgehog-shaped toy on wheels, crafted in Susa 3,500 years ago. A pink resin figure by Philippe Katerine. A Labubu painted in oil. The Louvre-Lens brings together nearly 300 works around a question that museums rarely ask: why do certain images make us feel good? Cuteness is taken seriously here.
LOUVRE-LENS
From September 23, 2026 to January 18, 2027
THE FEASTS OF CHAMBORD
One hundred and eighty-three pieces of lost silverware, reprinted in three dimensions from sixteenth-century engravings. Chambord has inventoried its tables and recreated four meals, from the supper given by Francis I to Charles V in 1539 to a dinner given for Lady Diana. The history of the château is told through the tableware.
CHAMBORD NATIONAL ESTATE
From September 26, 2026 to January 24, 2027
LEE UFAN AT THE PALACE OF THE POPES, AVIGNON Matter, space, time: Lee Ufan works almost exclusively with these elements, a raw stone and a steel plate being enough to hold a room together. The Palace of the Popes opens its most imposing spaces to him, and the exhibition entitled Relatum transforms the monument's spaces into architectural sculptures. The void is as important as what has been placed within it.
THE 18TH LYON BIENNIAL A former locomotive factory, a museum reopened for the occasion, traboules (covered passageways) to explore: the 18th Lyon Contemporary Art Biennale extends far beyond the exhibition halls and uses the city as its map. Its motto, "From one dream to another," is taken literally, from one neighborhood to another.
18th Lyon Biennale - Contemporary Art
From September 19 to December 13, 2026
CAMILLE CLAUDEL AND BERNHARD HOETGER AT THE CAMILLE CLAUDEL MUSEUM
On one side, a bronze storm; on the other, an onyx wave. In 1905, in Eugène Blot's gallery, Bernhard Hoetger's The Storm and Camille Claudel's The Wave hung side by side under the same lighting. The Camille Claudel Museum recreates this arrangement and restores the German sculptor to the place he then occupied beside her.
CAMILLE CLAUDEL MUSEUM
From September 12, 2026 to January 10, 2027
SAMUEL BASTIDE BRINGS HIS FILM TO SAINT-JEAN-DU-GARD
Long before cinema, worlds were already being created in the darkness. Samuel Bastide, a photographer, illustrator, and storyteller from the Cévennes region, painted some 2,500 glass plates which he projected and narrated during traveling shows. Maison Rouge revives this golden age of the magic lantern, when the image still needed a voice to exist.
MAISON ROUGE - MUSEUM OF THE CÉVENNES VALLEYS
From June 19, 2026 to May 2, 2027
FOLLOW THE THREAD AT THE HÔTEL DES ARTS TPM Solidified macramé, felt encased in resin, silk cocoons: design is not just about chairs. The Hôtel des Arts in Toulon restores textiles to their power as materials, from Sonia Delaunay to Dominique Perrault, and shifts the focus from ornamentation to structure.
MAURIZIO GALANTE AND TAL LANCMAN AT THE CITY OF LACE
A ceramic figurine embroidered with organza feathers and glass beads becomes a scarlet parrot after three hundred hours of sewing. Since 2003, Maurizio Galante and Tal Lancman have been exploring the shifting boundaries between haute couture, design, and art. Calais has opened two venues to them: the Cité de la Dentelle (Lace Museum) and the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Museum of Fine Arts).
CITÉ DE LA DENTELLE ET DE LA MODE
Until January 3, 2027
ROBERT DOISNEAU, MOMENTS GIVEN AT LA SUCRIÈRE, LYON
Three hundred and fifty prints, from the early 1930s to his later years, including images never before exhibited. The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville hangs alongside Lyon photographs commissioned by Vogue in 1950: a card game in the street, a ball at the Hôtel Lambert. After Paris, the Doisneau Studio retrospective moves to the former sugar factory on the docks.
LA SUCRIÈRE, LYON
From September 4, 2026 to February 28, 2027
