We’re a little sad to see the Cartier Foundation leave the Left Bank for a new, bigger space in Palais-Royal (opposite the Louvre), designed by star architect Jean Nouvel.

However, there is some good news – from our hotels, Palais-Royal is just 20 minutes away by metro or 30 minutes away on foot!

The other good news is that for the opening weekend, the Foundation is offering free entrance so you can discover its impressive new space, plus what they call the Exposition Générale, a modern art exhibition that will be in place until 26th August 2026.

If you’re a regular visitor to Paris, you may have known Le Louvre des antiquaires, a sort of smart shopping centre with just antique shops, housed in a grand building from 1855, opposite the Louvre. Its heyday was the 1980s, but the following decades saw the place slowly fade, and the last shops moved out around ten years ago. It’s a long story, but the building is now being reborn as the new Cartier Foundation spread over three floors, with five mobile platforms for maximum versatility.

A specialised bookshop is on the ground floor, opposite the Louvre. It’s open to anyone visiting the exhibitions of course, and to everyone when no temporary exhibition is in place.

And soon, meaning spring 2026, the Foundation will also have its own ‘creative bar‘ and a restaurant.

For its opening weekend, the Foundation is offering free entrance (that still has to be booked online), and from the following week you’ll be able to take a 90-minute guided visit of the building (with many other themed visits available too), as well as a whole programme of concerts, shows and mini-exhibitions.

The Exposition Générale which will be in place until next summer, showcases forty years of contemporary art at the Cartier Foundation, split into four main sections: Machines d’Architecture, Être Nature, Making Things and Un Monde Réel. Presentation is by Formafantasma and specific visits are available for each section.

The title of the exhibition references the building’s past as a department store – les Grands Magasins du Louvre – at the end of the 19th century. Now, another chapter for the building is poised to begin.

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The Cartier Foundation (here) is open every day except Mondays from 11am-8pm (late night opening Tuesdays until 10pm)

Admission: 15€ / 10€

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