Les Traversées du Marais

When? September 8-10 2017
What? Special events spanning opera, film, dance and art grant free access to 24 historic institutions.
Where? Across the Marais

From 8-10 September, the streets of the Marais will feel like a circus. A ‘carnival’ even – and not just due to the autumn tourist throngs, but also because this is the chosen theme of weekend-long culture fest ‘Les Traversées du Marais’, which returns for a second year running.

Set up by the ‘Marais Culture+’ collective, this large-scale community art project aims to celebrate of Paris’s most historic neighbourhoods through the prism of its vast, wide-ranging cultural heritage. After all, the Marais is home to all manner of museums, refitted public and private town houses and hidden gardens, as well as innumerable leading-edge art galleries. But though all this stuff exists all year round, from the outside, these imposing old monuments can appear quite intimidating to the even the most seasoned of Parisian travellers (not to mention the often offputtingly high entry fees).

Fortunately, that’s where ‘Les Traversées du marais’ can step in. These free events – which encompass a hodgepodge mix of things like masked balls, operas, street performances, film showings, book readings and hands-on art workshops – will allow a diverse public, young and old, to venture inside around 20 or so historic attractions in the Marais. And all at no cost.

It’s a really great opportunity to (re)discover cultural spaces you might usually steer clear of and explore the various temporary and permanent exhibits that will remain open throughout the weekend.

For more information, click here.