The best exhibitions to see in the regions
We say Paris and forget the rest. Yet it's in the regions that some of the country's most ambitious exhibitions are taking place: a Korean artist covering the floor of a Gothic palace with slate, a biennial occupying an entire city, a Loire Valley château recounting its lavish feasts. Here are the ones worth taking the train to see.
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 fill a room. 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 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 can be read through the tableware.
CHAMBORD NATIONAL ESTATE
From September 26, 2026 to January 24, 2027
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 BIENNIAL - 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 is recreating this exhibition and restoring to the German sculptor the place he held alongside her at the time.
CAMILLE CLAUDEL MUSEUM
From September 12, 2026 to January 10, 2027
SCULPTED LIGHT BY ÉMILIE LEMARDELEY
The Mandet Museum in Riom has given Émilie Lemardeley an unprecedented carte blanche, working in blown glass and cast bronze. Decorative objects are replaced by states of transition or crystallized energies. In other words, the pieces appear to freeze a moment of light, to suspend a metamorphosis. The transparency of glass contrasts with bronze and its reflections, creating a dialogue filled with poetry.
MANDET MUSEUM
From June 13, 2026 to January 3, 2027
Carte blanche to Ernest Pignon-Ernest
The artist Ernest Pignon-Ernest has created an ephemeral work, pasting drawn figures destined to disappear over time into public spaces. The Ziem Museum is dedicating a retrospective of two hundred works to him, tracing sixty years of creation, from drawings made in Algeria in 1962 to more recent interventions. The exhibition notably revisits his work in Martigues in the 1980s, where his monumental silhouettes took over streets, canals, and industrial walls to awaken the memory of places and those forgotten by history.
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ZIEM MUSEUM
FROM MAY 23 TO DECEMBER 31, 2026
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194 Iliazd, poet-architect of the book
The Pierre André Benoit Museum-Library in Alès pays tribute to Ilia Zdanevitch, typographer and A Georgian publisher who remained largely unknown in France for a long time. A collaborator of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Marc Chagall, he left his mark on the 200 avant-garde of the 20th century with his art of the book and its layout.
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Pierre-André Benoit Museum-Library
From April 10 to October 31, 2026
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213 Passavant the best! in Troyes
At Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte, the exhibition “Passavant li meillor!” brings to life medieval Champagne, a major European power between the 10th and 14th centuries. Driven by its fairs and figureslike Chrétien de Troyes, the region's influence extended far beyond its borders. Nearly 224,300 works 225 now recount the 226 splendor of this long-forgotten civilization. 228
229 Read our full article here 230
37 231 232 HÔTEL-DIEU-LE-COMTE - CITY OF STAINED GLASS 233 234
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238 Treasures of Wool and Silk 239
240 The exhibition unveils 241 for the first time 242 the 18th-century tapestries 244 held at the Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse and at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille. Coming in particular from the prestigious Werniers factory, they bear witness to the textile influence of Lille at that time. Monumental and precious, these works, restored between 2023 and 2026, have now regained all their splendor and offer a new perspective on this exceptional textile art.
HOSPICE COMTESSE MUSEUM
From April 29 to October 11, 2026
Mystification - Architecture and Cinema
At the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, an exhibition explores the art of illusion, from ancient painting to contemporary cinema. From The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to La Dolce Vita via The Matrix, the exhibition shows how architecture and cinema share the same power: to create credible worlds. Works, sets and installations interact with the site, which itself becomes an actor. Here, everything rests on a pact: that of a gaze ready to be deceived.
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Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans. From May 1, 2026 to February 28, 2027.
From May 1, 2026 to February 28, 2027.
Toulouse-Lautrec, creator of icons in Aix-en-Provence.
In the nocturnal Montmartre, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec transformed his Iconic models: a scarf for Aristide Bruant, gloves for Yvette Guilbert, an undulating silhouette for Jane Avril... and the legend was born. The Caumont Centre d'Art is dedicating a unique exhibition to this mechanism: nearly one hundred works, notably from the Musée d'Orsay and the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, reveal how the artist invented more than he represented.
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CAUMONT-CENTRE D'ART
Until October 4, 2026
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Sea, Pop & Sun in Hyères
At Villa Carmignac, Sea, Pop & Sun celebrates the hedonistic energy of the 1960s and 70s in a Mediterranean setting bathed in light. Inspired by Serge Gainsbourg, the exhibition revisits a sun-drenched pop art, where sea, sky, and desire replace urban icons . Nearly 80 works bring together major figures such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Martial Raysse , alongside contemporary artists. Between sensuality and an awareness of a fragile paradise, the exhibition questions what remains today of this ideal of freedom.
VILLA CARMIGNAC
From April 25 to November 1, 2026
Tursic & Mille: Dissonances with Variable Geometries in Nîmes
At the Carré d'Art, an exhibition revisits the work of Ida Tursic and Wilfried Mille, a duo who have been questioning painting in a world saturated with images for over twenty years. Their practice blends and blurs all registers—landscape, advertising, abstraction—by multiplying collisions, superimpositions, and accidents. Painting becomes an unstable, critical, and expansive field that overflows the canvas to expand into objects and fragments. Nothing is fixed: everything circulates, contaminates, and constantly recomposes itself.
CARRÉ D'ART - MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
From April 25 to October 11, 2026
Via Sensoria in Bordeaux
For its tenth anniversary, the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux celebrates in grand cru style. More than a tasting, Via Sensoria transforms the visit into an immersive journey guided by a sommelier. Lights, sounds, textures, and wine-season pairings: everything is there to awaken the senses. Ten years after its opening, the Cité du Vin reaffirms its mission: to make wine an experience to be lived, smelled, and shared.
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Cité du Vin
From April 1st to November 1st, 2026
From April 1st to November 1st, 2026
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Stories of Water, in the Simonow Collection at Valence-sur-Baïse
Between the mineral walls of Flaran Abbey, works from the Simonow Collection flow, drawing their inspiration from the theme of water. Nearly thirty paintings, from the 17th to the 21st century, explore seas, rivers, and storms, between contemplation and power. From Ziem to Monet, by way of Boudin and Courbet, the artists capture, in turn, light, matter, and movement.
FLARAN ABBEY
Until January 9, 2028
Eternal Egypt, Photographs by Flore in Amiens
Long overshadowed, the Egypt collection of the Musée de Picardie is reborn after restoration. Restored works, revived colors, legible hieroglyphs: the collection regains all its vitality. Around sixty pieces, the sensory journey blends rituals, materials, and mythical figures, enriched by a dialogue with the Louvre.
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Museum of Picardy
From April 11, 2026 to January 3, 2027
From April 11, 2026 to January 3, 2027
Jean Lurçat's The Song of the World in Aubusson
At the International Tapestry Center, the monumental tapestry The Song of the World by Jean Lurçat returns for the first time to the city where it was woven. Composed of ten tapestries, this testamentary work questions the future of humanity between violence and hope, while celebrating exceptional craftsmanship inscribed on UNESCO's Register.
International Tapestry City
From April 4 to November 1, 2026
From April 4 to November 1, 2026
At the MusBA, the Passions Collections exhibition presents ten years of acquisitions—paintings, sculptures, and graphic arts—demonstrating the vitality of a museum in perpetual growth. The focus is on Bordeaux art from the 18th to the 20th century, with works added to the existing collections.
BORDEAUX MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
From April 1, 2026 to January 4, 2027
In Mali, when animals dance in Lyon
In Mali, along the Niger River, the sogo bò festivals, literally "the animals come out," blend theater, dance, music, and song, and bring to life masks and Puppets to the rhythm of drums. The exhibition presents over one hundred objects and numerous audiovisual materials that recreate this participatory theatre, a UNESCO World Heritage site, where the entire community takes part in the story.
MUSEUM OF CONFLUENCES
From April 3, 2026 to February 2, 2027
Mythologies
In Bayonne, the Bonnat-Heulleu Museum is hosting its first temporary exhibition since its reopening. The great stories of human history and myths are brought to life, while heroes and heroines from all corners of the world meet. Journey to the heart of age-old traditions and tales without leaving the Pyrénées-Atlantiques!
BONNAT-HELLEU MUSEUM - BAYONNE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
Until November 9, 2026
Renaissance Treasures in the Oise at the MUDO
The MUDO-Musée de l’Oise invites you to rediscover Italian Renaissance art through the collections of the Domaine de Chaalis and Nélie Jacquemart-André. Portraits, banquets, and religious subjects reveal the great artistic revolutions of the 15th and 16th centuries. In the redesigned rooms of the Saint-Pierre wing, the exhibition offers a unique, playful, and sensory experience.
MUDO - MUSÉE DE L'OISE
From March 4 to December 31, 2026
Leonor Fini. Look, they look like humans!
To mark the 30th anniversary of the death of the surrealist painter Leonor Fini, the Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roch in Issoudun presents an exceptional exhibition bringing together drawings, paintings, engravings, and her famous recreated Salon, offering a glimpse into her surreal, whimsical, and profoundly free world.
SAINT-ROCH HOSPICE MUSEUM
From February 14 to December 30, 2026
Red Variations at Mane
For its reopening on February 1, the Salagon Museum presents seven new canvases by Yves Zurstrassen, in dialogue with the Romanesque church and the stained-glass windows by Aurélie Nemours. Through rhythms, forms, and shades of red, he creates a subtle echo of the stained glass while revealing the musicality and freedom of his abstraction.
SALAGON MUSEUM AND GARDENS
From February 1 to December 14, 2026
Time Turned Backward in Strasbourg
The Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art plays with time and blends the major phases of existence with the renowned artists who captured them. From Renoir to Marlene Dumas, this exhibition immerses us in a journey against time through photographs and videos that capture the stages of our lives.
MUSEUM OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART OF STRASBOURG
From January 23 to October 18, 2026
MIRAGES OF THE WORLD, HERVÉ DI ROSA AT LA MALMAISON, CANNES
Forty years of painting on three floors, facing the Croisette. At La Malmaison, Hervé Di Rosa unfolds the transition from Free Figuration to a style of painting created in the four corners of the world, with Ghanaian, Mexican, and Vietnamese artisans. Big eyes, bold colors, dark humor: the figure remains unchanged, the material transforms everything.
LA MALMAISON ART CENTER, CANNES
From July 17 to November 8, 2026
