From Paris to Provence, France’s most revered establishments are proving there’s much more to the nation’s cultural canon than the Louvre. As 2025 unfolds, main museums and foundations throughout France are staging blockbuster exhibitions, immersive experiences and considerate retrospectives that span actions, centuries and continents. Whereas the Louvre will be the most visited (largely because of the reputation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, it’s not at all the one venue shaping world discourse in artwork, historical past and design).
From the surreal installations of Ernesto Neto to the vivid works of David Hockney and the fashion-forward brilliance of Azzedine Alaïa and Thierry Mugler, this 12 months’s line-up highlights the variety and ambition of France’s artwork scene.
Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris
Reopened in 2024 after an formidable four-year restoration, the Grand Palais in Paris stands as a reimagined cultural landmark. Initially constructed for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, the monument is famend for its hovering glass roof and Beaux-Arts structure. At present, it re-emerges as a dynamic public house, internet hosting world-class exhibitions, performances, and interdisciplinary occasions on the intersection of artwork, science and tradition.
Deal with: 75008 Paris, France
Noteworthy Exhibition:
Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hulten
This landmark exhibition explores the dynamic inventive relationship between artists Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely, as seen by the visionary lens of curator and museum pioneer Pontus Hulten. Greater than a retrospective, the showcase captures the revolutionary spirit of a legendary creative partnership, one grounded in rise up and collaboration.
As some of the celebrated {couples} in up to date artwork, Saint Phalle and Tinguely pushed the boundaries of creative expression with kinetic sculptures, large-scale installations and participatory works that challenged conventional museum codecs. The exhibition additionally pays tribute to Hulten — the primary director of the Centre Pompidou’s Musée Nationwide d’Artwork Moderne — who championed their work all through his profession.
That includes key items from the Centre Pompidou’s assortment alongside main worldwide loans, the present reconstructs seminal moments equivalent to the long-lasting Nana cathedral (1966) and Le Crocrodrome de Zig & Puce (1977). Curated by Sophie Duplaix and co-produced by the Centre Pompidou and the GrandPalaisRmn, the exhibition provides a playfully profound journey by the intersections of artwork and activism.
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Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
Opened in 2014 in Paris’ Bois de Boulogne and designed by Frank Gehry, the Fondation Louis Vuitton is a cultural establishment devoted to up to date and trendy artwork. Backed by the LVMH Group, the Fondation curates main retrospective showcases, cutting-edge exhibitions and interdisciplinary commissions throughout its 11 galleries. With a mission to help creative dialogue and cultural change, it has turn into one in all Europe’s most influential non-public artwork foundations.
Location: 8, Avenue du Mahatma GandhiBois de Boulogne, 75116 Paris
Noteworthy Ongoing Exhibition:
David Hockney 25
Held from 9 April to 31 August 2025, the exhibition spans over 70 years of David Hockney’s prolific output. This landmark retrospective is the biggest ever devoted to the artist — with over 400 works curated throughout 11 rooms. Personally overseen by Hockney himself, the exhibition traces his evolution from early British portraits to iconic Californian pool scenes and the sweeping landscapes of Yorkshire and Normandy.
Highlights embrace immersive digital works created on iPads, large-scale installations, uncommon self-portraits and a vibrant new sequence painted in London in 2023–2024. A piece on Hockney’s opera set designs and his art-historical influences — from Van Gogh to Fra Angelico — showcases the breadth of his interdisciplinary curiosity.
Head to the official web site for extra info.
Château La Coste – Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade (close to Aix-en-Provence)
Simply 20 minutes from Aix-en-Provence, Château La Coste is a exceptional 200-hectare property that mixes up to date artwork, structure and winemaking. Set amidst vineyards that date again to the Romans, the property is dotted with cypresses, stone pines, olive timber and oaks — a quintessential Provençal panorama. Amongst its most putting options is the ultimate architectural venture by Oscar Niemeyer: a modern pavilion nestled amongst Vermentino vines. The construction homes a 380m² exhibition house and a 140m² cylindrical auditorium, with Niemeyer’s signature curved traces and glazed façades that enable the encompassing winery to visually “spill” into the constructing. A shallow reflecting pool on the entrance performs with mild and shadow, echoing the property’s quiet dialogue between nature and design.
Location: 2750 Route De La Cride, 13610 Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
Noteworthy Exhibition:
Jean Pigozzi – Autoportrait, 11 July – 7 September 2025
This summer time, Château La Coste unveils Autoportrait, a solo exhibition devoted to Franco-Italian photographer Jean Pigozzi — a singular voice in up to date visible tradition. Spanning over sixty years of inventive exploration, the exhibition presents a number of Pigozzi’s self-portraits alongside — for the primary time — authentic contact sheets from his archive.
Eschewing perfection in favour of introspection, Pigozzi’s work provides an unfiltered have a look at themes of id, time and self-representation in a world more and more formed by digital imagery. Lengthy earlier than the appearance of social media, his lens turned inward with wit, candour and a eager sense of cultural remark. Introduced within the Outdated Wine Storehouse, Autoportrait provides a uncommon glimpse into the non-public and creative evolution of a photographer who has persistently captured — and questioned — the act of seeing oneself.
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Azzedine Alaïa Basis
Housed within the late designer’s historic Marais residence and studio, the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa preserves and presents the wealthy inventive legacy of one in all trend’s most revered couturiers. Past Alaïa’s personal creations, the muse showcases rotating exhibitions drawing from his huge private assortment of artwork, design and pictures. The house additionally features a fashion-focused bookshop and a café, echoing the designer’s famed hospitality. With over 35,000 archived items and partnerships with cultural establishments and trend colleges, the muse champions training and multidisciplinary dialogue on the coronary heart of Paris.
Location: 18 rue de la Verrerie – 75004 Paris
Noteworthy Exhibition:
Azzedine Alaïa, Thierry Mugler Exhibition
An inventive dialogue between two visionary designers, Azzedine Alaïa and Thierry Mugler celebrates the sculptural and audacious trend that outlined their period. Curated by Olivier Saillard, the exhibition traces the inventive affinities between Alaïa and Mugler all through the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties — many years that noticed their work reshape silhouettes and redefine the boundaries of high fashion and ready-to-wear. By means of a curated number of famend items, the exhibition explores their mutual obsession with the physique, quantity and supplies — merging architectural precision with a radical sense of sensuality. The exhibition provides perception into how these two design legends left an enduring influence on the style trade and proceed to encourage new generations of trend creatives.
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Fondation Maeght – Saint-Paul-de-Vence (French Riviera)
A pioneering cultural establishment on the French Riviera, the Fondation Maeght was based in 1964 by artwork sellers Aimé and Marguerite Maeght with the help of artists like Georges Braque, Joan Miró and Alberto Giacometti. Designed by Catalan architect Josep Lluís Sert, the location fuses modernist structure with Mediterranean panorama in a mix of artwork, nature and lightweight. Set amid sculpture gardens and mosaics by Chagall, Calder and Miró, the Fondation homes one in all Europe’s most important collections of Twentieth-century trendy and up to date artwork. It was France’s first non-public basis for the humanities and stays a significant hub for exhibitions, performances and artist residencies. Simply 25 km from Good, it continues to be a landmark for cultural innovation and inventive change. The sculpture backyard and everlasting assortment are a must-see for artwork lovers alongside the Riviera.
Location: 623, Chemin des Gardettes, 06570 Saint-Paul de Vence, France
Ongoing Exhibition:
André Ostier
Fondation Maeght presents a tribute to André Ostier (1906–1994), the discreet but pivotal photographer who captured the inside world of Twentieth-century artwork. That includes 32 silver gelatin prints, the exhibition highlights Ostier’s deep private connections with main artists of his time — together with Giacometti, Miró, Braque and Calder — lots of whom have been carefully tied to the Maeght household and their gallery.
Ostier’s lens reveals a uncommon intimacy that features artists at work, non-public studio moments and the colourful inventive life surrounding the Maeghts. Revered for his elegant, quiet fashion, Ostier was additionally a trusted good friend to cultural figures like Christian Dior, Leonor Fini and Marc Chagall. As Pierre Bergé as soon as described him, he was “distant, discreet and exact.” The exhibition — made potential by the Affiliation des Amis d’André Ostier — is a poetic visible report of mid-century creative circles.
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Bassins des Lumières, Bordeaux
Housed inside an enormous former WWII submarine base, Bassins des Lumières is the world’s largest digital artwork middle. Its 4 immense 110 m-long, 12 m-deep concrete basins function reflective canvases for large-scale immersive exhibitions, that includes 90 projectors and 80 audio system throughout 12,000 m of floor. Culturespaces has reimagined this industrial monument right into a cutting-edge cultural landmark, the place projections envelop partitions, ceilings and water in synchronised visuals and sound. Guests discover by way of elevated walkways, totally immersed in a sensory setting the place artwork historical past and high-tech innovation collide. Alongside its primary digital showcases, the location consists of “Le Dice” (220 m², 8 m excessive) for up to date immersive artwork and “La Citerne” (155 m²) linking content material to supply museums. All 12 months lengthy, the middle hosts rotating packages that includes each historic masters and digital creations.
Location: Imp. Brown de Colstoun, 33300 Bordeaux, France
Ongoing Exhibitions:
“The Little Prince“
Step into the dreamlike world of The Little Prince on this immersive audio-visual expertise at Bordeaux’s Bassins des Lumières. Set inside the huge chambers of a former submarine base, the exhibition brings Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved story to life by animated watercolours, ambient music and poetic narration. Guests journey by glowing deserts, asteroid B612 and encounters with the fox and the snake, all rendered in bursts of color and stardust. The result’s a deeply emotional and sensory exploration of this timeless fable — ultimate for households, solo travellers or anybody looking for a second of marvel.
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Palais de Tokyo
The Palais de Tokyo is Europe’s largest centre for up to date creation — a daring, ever-evolving house devoted to the artwork of at present. Located in Paris, it stands as a laboratory for rising voices, avant-garde experiments and cross-disciplinary practices. Effervescent and audacious, the Palais is depicted as “a dwelling, respiration platform” the place artists are invited to create and reply to the world in actual time and interact with a public “hungry for the sudden”.
Since opening in 2002, it has embraced an ever-changing programme of daring, non-permanent exhibitions — from large-scale installations to cutting-edge video and efficiency artwork. With no everlasting assortment, the house consistently reinvents itself, making room for rising and established voices alike. Its distinctive structure permits for site-specific works that play with scale, mild and structure. The venue additionally attracts a classy, eclectic crowd because of its buzzing eating places, late-night occasions and panoramic views of the Eiffel Tower. Highlights embrace a standout idea retailer and cultural areas like Yoyo nightclub and the fashion-forward eating places Monsieur Bleu and Bambini.
Location: 13 Av. du Président Wilson, 75116 Paris, France
Ongoing Exhibitions:
Chambre des échos: Elia David, Your Canine Portraitist
In playful response to Disco, Vivian Suter’s exhibition is called after her canine. The Palais de Tokyo invitations painter {and professional} canine portraitist Elia David into the Chambre des échos. Echoing the commissioned portrait traditions of Nineteenth-century artists, David turns his craft into each financial necessity and creative assertion — providing finely rendered pet portraits that discover the emotional bonds between animals and their homeowners. These works problem the divide between so-called “excessive artwork” and nostalgic commissions. His non permanent studio doubles as a promotional showcase and participatory house, inviting guests to collaborate on customized portraits of their canine — and sure, cats, rabbits and even gerbils too.
Set in a free-access, community-driven house inside the Palais, the exhibition playfully examines creative labour, intimacy and the cultural legitimacy of on a regular basis topics.
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