Paris in 2025: A City in Constant Renewal
After the global spotlight on the 2024 Summer Olympics and the long-awaited reopening of Notre-Dame cathedral, it might have seemed impossible for Paris to shine more brightly. Yet the summer of 2025 has proven otherwise. Welcoming record numbers of visitors, the city of light is not simply a destination. It is a place for renewal, celebration and an invitation to experience the boundless creativity of a city forever evolving.
As Susan Taylor-Leduc recently shared with journalist Lindsey Tramuta in her feature for the Robb Report, Paris is constantly reinventing itself season after season. This year marks another turning point, with the reopening of two major cultural landmarks: the Fondation Cartier for Contemporary Art, reborn at the Palais Royal, and the re-opening of the monumental Grand Palais.
The Fondation Cartier at the Palais Royal
On October 25, 2025, the Fondation Cartier for Contemporary ART unveils its striking new home at 2 Place du Palais-Royal. The transformation of the former Grands Magasins du Louvre, reimagined by Jean Nouvel for display of contemporary art, fuses 19th-century grandeur with bold contemporary design. Vast bay windows open onto the city, while five mobile platforms spanning 1,200 square meters allow room for new works that can reach to the soaring ceilings of up to 11 meters.
Nouvel, who created the original glass-and-steel building on Boulevard Raspail in 1994, has once again given form to the Fondation’s mission: marrying curatorial innovation with architectural vision. The elevated walkways and fluid spaces affrord fresh perspectives not only dedicated to art, but also open to the city.
Exposition Générale: The Inaugural Showcase
The opening exhibition, Exposition Générale, celebrates forty years of the Fondation’s programming and collections. Nearly 600 works by over 100 artists are presented until August 2026 in both thematic ensembles and solo installations.
The exhibition’s title recalls the Expositions Générales once held in this very building during the 19th century—events that coincided with the World Fair and reflected the spirit of Barons Haussmann’s urban renewal project. Today’s Exposition Générale carries that same ambition: to embody openness, dialogue and experimentation in the very heart of the city.
Paris: Past, Present, and Future
The inauguration of the Fondation Cartier at Palais Royal demonstrates how respect for heritage can inform the future. The long awaited restoration of the Grand Palais also joins past and present. While the public was able to admire the glass domed ceiling of the Nave during the Olympic Games, where the soaring iron and glass ceiling (the largest in Europe) crowed the various competitions, the rotunda of the Palais de la Découverte, conceived for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, was closed to the public. The restoration of this spaces is now the heart of the building, which gives generous access to the exhibition spaces, new galleries, boutiques, and restaurants.
At Picturesque Voyages, we are delighted to craft tailor-made itineraries so that you can visit these venues on your next trip to Paris. Whether a visit to the exhibition at the Grand Palais, or the discovery of the Fondation Cartier, we can build a itinerary around these venues.