• Living room
• Contemporary

Salon Réalités Nouvelles: our winners and our favorites at Césure

GAP BREAK
November 5-8, 2026

The Salon Réalités Nouvelles celebrates its 80th edition from November 5th to 8th, 2026 in Césure, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris (75005), bringing together one hundred and twenty artists around the theme of abstraction, each presenting one work. Arts in the City is awarding its Critics' Prize for the first time, and has bestowed it upon three of the artists: Fabrice Ainaut, Romain Laveille, and Joanick Bécourt.

• Free
• Classic

Reflection exhibition at the Hélène Bailly gallery in Marcilhac

Hélène Bailly Marcilhac
From October 19 to December 19, 2026

The Hélène Bailly Marcilhac gallery is dedicating its exhibition "Reflection," focusing on the motif of reflection, to the theme of reflection, from October 19 to December 19, 2026, at 71 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Admission is free, and the selection spans from Impressionism to Surrealism and contemporary art, including works by Signac, Picasso, and Miró.

• With family
• Discovery

Automata and mechanical marvels: Christmas 2026 at the Château du Clos Lucé

Château du Clos Lucé
From November 28, 2026 to January 3, 2027

From November 28, 2026 to January 3, 2027, the Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise pays homage to Leonardo da Vinci with Automata and Mechanical Wonders, a Christmas populated with ancient and rare automata, mechanical toys and articulated figures.

• With family
• Discovery

Christmas in Fairyland 2026 at the Royal Fortress of Chinon

ROYAL FORTRESS OF CHINON
From November 28, 2026 to January 3, 2027

From November 28, 2026 to January 3, 2027, the royal fortress of Chinon, in Indre-et-Loire, is transformed into a land of fairies for Christmas, with enchanted scenes, magical forest decorations and photographs of the famous Cottingley fairies.

• With family
• Discovery

The King's Journey 2026 at the Palace of Versailles: Marie Antoinette celebrates Christmas

Palace of Versailles
From December 12, 2026 to January 2, 2027

From December 12, 2026 to January 2, 2027, "The King's Journey" at the Palace of Versailles celebrates Marie Antoinette, the queen of fashion. This nighttime spectacular tour takes visitors through the State Apartments to the Hall of Mirrors, before the appearance of a baroque Santa Claus in the Hall of Battles.

• With family
• Discovery

Winter tales at the Château de La Roche-Guyon: a first Christmas

CHÂTEAU DE LA ROCHE-GUYON
From December 5, 2026 to January 3, 2027

From December 5, 2026 to January 3, 2027, the Château de La Roche-Guyon, in Val-d'Oise, opens for the first time in its history during the holidays with Winter Tales, a poetic Christmas made of lights, sound creation and an unpublished children's album by Elisa Martin.

• With family
• Discovery

Christmas at the Château de Fontainebleau 2026: The Table of Kings

Château de Fontainebleau
From December 20, 2026 to January 2, 2027

From December 20, 2026 to January 2, 2027, the Château de Fontainebleau, in Seine-et-Marne, celebrates Christmas in memory of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, with a state table set in the Guards' Room, a family show and a Christmas concert dedicated to Monteverdi.

• With family
• Discovery

Christmas at Fontevraud 2026: art, nativity scene and concerts at the royal abbey

Royal Abbey of Fontevraud
From November 28, 2026 to March 7, 2027

From November 28, 2026 to March 7, 2027, the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, in Maine-et-Loire, experiences an artists' Christmas, including a festive wax table by Mona Oren, a hand-crafted Neapolitan nativity scene, polyphonies by Les Arts Florissants, and snow mapping on the abbey's facade.

• With family
• Discovery

Christmas at Cheverny Castle 2026: A grand Christmas in the heart of the Loire Valley

CHÂTEAU DE CHEVERNY
From November 28, 2026 to January 10, 2027

From November 28, 2026 to January 10, 2027, the Château de Cheverny, in Loir-et-Cher, is going all out for Christmas with a thirty-meter Christmas tree, an original mapping on its facade and a first Christmas village, in the estate which Hergé used as the model for Moulinsart.

• With family
• Discovery

The Great Christmas 2026 at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte

VAUX-LE-VICOMTE CASTLE
From November 14, 2026 to January 3, 2027

From November 14, 2026 to January 3, 2027, the Grand Christmas at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, in Seine-et-Marne, is touring the world. Salons transformed into stopovers, automata, an animated facade with projections and a 420 m² ice rink in Le Nôtre's gardens make up one of the most popular Christmases in Île-de-France.

• With family
• Discovery

Christmas at the Château de Chambord 2026: Gargantua's Gourmet Christmas

CHAMBORD CASTLE
From November 28, 2026 to January 17, 2027

From November 28, 2026 to January 17, 2027, the Château de Chambord celebrates Christmas under the sign of Gargantua. Gourmet decorations, the exhibition "The Feasts of Chambord" and a new show "Gargantua's Christmas Eve" make the royal estate the most indulgent Christmas destination in the Loire Valley.

• With family
• Discovery

Christmas 2026: 13 magical castles to visit for the holidays

Castles of the Loire and Île-de-France regions
From November 14, 2026 to March 7, 2027

This year, the castles are sitting down to a feast. Gargantua is feasting at Chambord, Cheverny is setting up its tables even on its facade, Fontevraud is sculpting a wax banquet and Versailles is reliving the splendor of Marie-Antoinette… From November 14, 2026 to March 7, 2027, from the Loire to the Île-de-France, thirteen castles and royal abbeys are celebrating Christmas with tales, lights and wonders.

• Free
• Contemporary

The Tender Monsters exhibition at the PM Gallery

PM GALLERY
From November 5 to December 24, 2026

The PM Gallery brings together seven artists around the theme of the deformed creature, from November 5 to December 24, 2026, at 40 rue de Seine. Salvador Dalí is featured alongside contemporary painters and sculptors, and admission is free.

Butterfly exhibition at the Musée des Confluences in Lyon

How long does it take for a caterpillar to become something other than itself? The Musée des Confluences takes this question literally and, over nearly two years, traces the entire life cycle of the butterfly, from egg to chrysalis and from chrysalis…

Bonnard Exhibition, The Collections, at the Bonnard Museum in Le Cannet

A painter who spent his life painting the same dining room, the same bathtub, the same woman, and who never painted the same picture twice. Pierre Bonnard returns to Le Cannet, to the house-museum dedicated to him, with a unique exhibition drawn from…

The Frac Auvergne opens the Halle aux Blés in Clermont-Ferrand with "The Eternal Molts"

Three hundred and fifty square meters of exhibition space yesterday, more than nine hundred today. The Frac Auvergne has moved into an 18th-century grain market and is opening its doors wide. The building was constructed between 1762 and 1771 by…

• Discovery

Roman art from the Louvre, a world of images

Museum of Roman Civilization
From June 11, 2026 to January 10, 2027

In Nîmes, the Roman world is not a memory: it is a geography. The Maison Carrée is intact, the Arena still welcomes spectators.

• Classic
• Photo

Surreal Women Exhibition at the Nantes Museum of Fine Arts

NANTES MUSEUM OF ARTS
From November 20, 2026 to March 21, 2027

The smugglers and the surrealist painters

Shigeru Ban exhibition, Building a Better World, at the Centre Pompidou-Metz

Cardboard, bamboo, reclaimed wood. With these materials, once considered humble, Shigeru Ban has been building churches, museums, and emergency shelters for forty years, and the Centre Pompidou-Metz is dedicating an exhibition to him, which he…

Exhibition: Diving into the Unknown at the National Maritime Museum in Toulon

How far can one descend, and what do we find at the bottom? The National Maritime Museum in Toulon takes this question seriously and retraces the entire underwater adventure in the Mediterranean, from Cousteau's first dives to the FNRS III…

Exhibition "Art is a Conquest: André Malraux and Modern Art" at the MuMa in Le Havre

“We can only feel through comparison.” The phrase is by André Malraux, and the MuMa (Musée d'art moderne André Malraux) has made it the very principle of its exhibition for the fiftieth anniversary of his death. The museum in Le Havre that bears his…

Exhibition "Voyage à l'anglaise, Turner et les artistes du Grand Tour" (English Journey, Turner and the Artists of the Grand Tour), at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille

In 1819, a forty-four-year-old Englishman crossed the Alps for the first time and encountered a light that no watercolor had yet been able to capture. William Turner had a solid reputation behind him, Italy before him, and the unwavering conviction…

• Photo
• Unavoidable

Louvre Photo exhibition at the Louvre Museum: our photos and our opinion

LOUVRE MUSEUM
From November 4, 2026 to May 3, 2027

The Louvre Museum has entrusted Dominique de Font-Réaulx and Quentin Bajac, director of the Jeu de Paume, with the curatorship of Louvre Photo, visible on the Napoleon Mezzanine from November 4, 2026 to May 3, 2027, in a scenography by Juan Felipe Alarcón.

• Contemporary
• Free

Elmgreen & Dragset exhibition, Max Hetzler: our photos and our opinion

MAX HETZLER GALLERY
From October 19 to December 16, 2026

Elmgreen & Dragset occupy both addresses of the Max Hetzler gallery, which face each other across the rue du Temple. The Scandinavian duo installs their deceptive sets there, and the title does the rest.

• Contemporary
• Unavoidable

The Birth of Waves exhibition at the Conciergerie: our photos and our review

CONCIERGE SERVICE
From November 4th to December 20th, 2026

Émilie Faïf and Nicolas André are suspending an installation under the vaults of the Salle des Gens d'armes, the largest Gothic civil hall in Europe, before a long campaign of works.

• Contemporary
• Unavoidable

Ibrahim Mahama exhibition at the Cartier Foundation: our photos and our review

CARTIER FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
From October 22, 2026 to February 28, 2027

From October 22, 2026 to February 28, 2027, the Cartier Foundation entrusts all of its spaces in the Palais-Royal to the Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama: a glass bottle factory dismantled in Ghana and reassembled in Paris, a parliament of stools and several guest artists.

• Free
• Discovery

Open Studios from Antwerp to Abbesses: 105 artists open their studios in Montmartre

OPEN DAYS IN ANTWERP AT THE ABBESSES
November 20-23, 2026

The Open Studios event in Angers aux Abbesses brings together 105 artists in 48 studios in Montmartre, from November 20 to 23, 2026, with free admission. The association opens workspaces that are not normally accessible to the public, from the Cité Montmartre aux Artistes to the Atelier d’Art Lepic, which hosts Henri Landier.

• News
• Free

The Great Greenhouses of Pantin open with an inaugural weekend

THE GREAT GREENS OF PANTIN
From November 6 to 8, 2026

The Grandes Serres de Pantin officially open to the public from November 6 to 8, 2026, on the banks of the Ourcq canal. The former Pouchard tube factory becomes an 11,000 m² public hall which three days of concerts, workshops and tastings inaugurate, with Baume Chérie, the first monograph of the place entrusted to Idir Davaine.

• Photo
• Free

The best free photo exhibitions in Paris

PARIS AND ÎLE-DE-FRANCE
Eleven free exhibitions

Photography is celebrating its two hundredth anniversary, and much of what's on display in Paris and the Île-de-France region is free. Eleven free exhibitions, from galleries in the Marais to suburban photography houses, are listed from the most prominent to the most obscure.

National Maritime Museum: a free counter-evening event in the depths on November 5th

The National Maritime Museum will open its doors free of charge on Thursday, November 5, 2026, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., for a special event themed "The Call of the Depths." Slam poetry, a DJ set, linocut printing, and divination sessions will…