The Journées du Patrimoine (Heritage Days) are back, with a new edition full of discoveries! This year, the famous cultural event takes place on the weekend of September 20-21, 2025, and offers you a maximum number of good deals, guided tours and events in your area.
Beyond the capital, the regions ofÎle-de-France are also celebrating culture by opening the doors of their historic sites and unusual places free of charge. Prestigious châteaux, emblematic museums, legendary theaters and other little-known addresses all lend themselves to the festivities. In short, a memorable weekend in store, offering a rare opportunity to discover our heritage in a new light!
The Paris region is not to be outdone, and promises a fine program for the Journées du Patrimoine 2025! Just a few kilometers from Paris, Saint-Germain-en-Laye is once again taking part in the event. This charming Yvelines town traces its origins back to the 11th century, when a monastery dedicated to Saint Germain, Bishop of Paris, was built on its wooded grounds.
However, it was in the 12th century, under the reign of Louis VI, that the fortified castle was built, until Louis XIV decided to turn it into a royal residence in the 17th century, embellishing the château and commissioning a sumptuous park from André Le Nôtre. While the aura of royalty still hovers over its cobbled streets, the timeless charm of Saint-Germain-en-Laye has also inspired artists such as Debussy and Renoir, and continues to seduce creative minds to this day.
Today, the château houses the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale, and the town offers an idyllic setting for strolling between elegant boutiques and verdant parks.
Self-guided tour of the Princesses' Greenhouses. Scavenger hunt throughout the site.
The "Serres des Princesses", an Agrocampus educational facility, is open all day and freely accessible, independently of guided tours. Here you'll find Agrocampus produce (flowers, fruit, vegetables and garden plants), as well as products from local farmers (honey, beer, jam, etc.) and even products from many of France's agricultural colleges: wines, spirits and various preserves.
Guided tours of the various natural and cultivated areas and the way they are managed. The fauna and flora are particularly diverse: pheasants, wild boar, roe deer, foxes, hedgehogs... and numerous agricultural productions: market gardening, floriculture, orchards, cereals...
The Agrocampus, formerly the Lycée agricole, occupies and supports this 83-hectare area, a former hunting ground located between the forests of Marly and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and between the towns of Chambourcy and Saint-Germain.
This public establishment comprises a general and vocational lycée, an apprentice training center and an adult education center.
Visit the RATP archives, home to a wealth of precious documents that bear witness to the history of transport in the Paris region: maps, metro tickets, posters and photographs.
The history of styles is intimately linked to the practice of art framing. For the 100th anniversary of art deco, discover the art deco style in framing.
Presentation of the job of restorer of paintings, graphic documents and terracotta objets d'art, as well as gilding and polychromy on wood. Presentation of a painting and an engraving being cleaned.
A refined textile art, bobbin lace is a meticulous weaving technique that creates a light, transparent fabric through the precise arrangement of full and empty spaces. The use of color and sophisticated materials gives lace its precious, innovative character.
With many years' experience and a passion for yarn, I see myself as a transmitter of know-how and heritage, as well as a unique means of expression.
As a miniature painter, I have chosen to combine these two arts in a very personal interpretation. Both lace and miniatures reflect the image of a world in all its perfection.
I'll introduce you to this fascinating art through a demonstration of bobbin and needle lace and a video. For the more curious, I offer a discovery class (by appointment only). A unique opportunity to try out a new skill.
Lace speaks of a time when people took their time.
Opening of the workshop and presentation of work.
Explanation of clay modelling, casting and bronze printing.
Trained at the Ecole Boulle, Sophie Deodato left her workshop in the Parisian Faubourg to settle in Saint Germain en Laye.
Profession: Cabinetmaker
Spatialization: Restoration and conservation of antique furniture and design pieces.
It's in her atypical workshop (an old butcher's fridge) that she welcomes you to talk about her trade and her passion. Here, Sophie invites you to travel through the ages: art history and ancestral know-how mingle in the service of transmission.
Her job: to bring these time-honored treasures back to life, scrupulously respecting the restorers' code of ethics, combining legibility of the work and conservation for the sake of sustainability.
Straw marquetry is an art form dating back to the 17th century. Lost for many years, it resurfaced in the Art Deco years, only to be forgotten until today. Many of today's top decorators and designers are reintegrating this craft into their projects.
Working with rye straw, a humble, raw and natural material naturally coated with silica, transforms the surface on which it is applied into a luxuriant object.
Xylogravures of a Stations of the Cross engraved in 1943 by artist Roger-Calixte Poupart. Presented in situ in the Saint-Léger church after having been fortuitously rediscovered in 2024 in the presbytery.
Like many communes that have seen their demographic strata evolve significantly, the original town hall, often a historic building, is becoming too cramped to accommodate all the municipal services. It was decided to create another building to meet the need. It would be interesting to share with users how this type of project is carried out, what objectives were set for its construction, and what is the situation today?
On Friday, September 19 and Saturday, September 20, 2025, as part of the European Heritage Days, come and discover the operating theater and ambulatory surgery unit, their workings and the professions that make them up, through an immersive tour.
You'll have the chance to go behind the scenes and into an operating theatre.
You'll also be able to talk to the professionals who make up this team.
Take a free tour of the Franciscan chapel, which contains two works by Maurice Denis (tabernacle and funeral plaque for Canon Besse), as well as a rich history linked to the Franciscan choir (1903-1924) and its organist from Saint-Germany, the famous Albert Alain, father of Jehan and Marie-Claire Alain.
Come and listen to a spiritual concert (songs and organ) featuring pieces from the 17th century to the present day.
Duration: 30 min.
History of the city's cemeteries, presentation of the remarkable built heritage and a tour of the graves of famous personalities.
Come and discover a series of descriptive panels presenting the lives of saints venerated in the parish.
Take advantage of the early morning opening and the presence of a mediator to discover the museum's new temporary exhibition.
Between April and November 1925, the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs consecrated and baptized the style that had already reigned supreme for some years: Art Deco. For the first time in the history of international exhibitions, garden art was also on the program. Some twenty ephemeral gardens punctuate the visitor's route along the Cours-la-Reine, the esplanade and the terraces of Les Invalides.
Regular and geometric, giving pride of place to architecture and sculpture, they embody the French modern garden. The very garden that jury member André Vera first defined in Le Nouveau Jardin, published in 1912, the same year as his articles "La nouvelle architecture" and "Le nouveau style". Vera's wish was that this orderly, sober style, which would become Art Deco, should be applied to all the arts. The garden should therefore be an extension of the interior: as much a part of architecture as of nature, symmetrical and proportionate. Heir to the order and clarity of 17th-century gardens, it must carry its modernity high and welcome new uses such as sport.
Putting his theories into practice, André Vera, aided by his brother Paul, created a number of private and public parks and gardens between the wars. Symmetry, orthogonal axes, geometric shapes, varied plant colors, strata, sculptures, colored sands, as well as untrimmed trees around the plot, like a curtain of nature untouched by man, and electric lighting: the gardens designed by the Vera brothers heralded the landscape art of today. While most of their creations have now disappeared, their memory lives on in the astonishingly geometric, abstract and fresh plans and sketches.
Game book for children.
For a weekend, the museum's emblematic painting, L'Escamoteur from the entourage of Jérôme Bosch, not visible outside temporary exhibitions, is presented to the public. It will be accompanied by tapestries from our collections, which you can admire until early October.
Water in Fourqueux, its origins, wells, various water points in the village, the Buzot stream from its source to its confluence.
Discover the works (paintings, sculptures, lamps...) and backgrounds of the artists on display.
Visit the main courtyard and restored chapel of the Institut Saint Thomas de Villeneuve.
Come and discover the land of the handmade, the personalized and customizable, the unique, where quality takes precedence over quantity.
Looking to replace your instrument, find the perfect guitar or unearth the vinyl of your dreams? La CLEF's musical flea market is back! The association offers all music enthusiasts the chance to meet, trade, sell or buy!
The La CLEF team welcomes you for a stroll through all the nooks and crannies of the venue, from the basement concert hall through the park to the 3rd floor. Hidden treasures, juicy anecdotes, an artistic tour... surprises guaranteed!
Visit the Legion of Honor educational center at Les Loges, housed in a former convent. Today, it houses a public boarding school for descendants of the decorated.
Guided tour of the Maison d'Education de la Légion d'Honneur, formerly a convent, now a public boarding school for middle-school girls.
A major part of the Musée Ducastel-Vera's collections is dedicated to Claude Debussy, a composer whose innovative work profoundly changed classical music and paved the way for twentieth-century experimentation. Debussy's personal objects, the sources of his inspiration, as well as numerous family mementos, photos and scores are brought together in the 17th-century house where the composer spent the first three years of his life.
Discover or rediscover the place with the presence of a pianist on Saturday afternoons.
Take advantage of the European Heritage Days to (re)discover the Maison natale Claude-Debussy.
SATUR. SEPTEMBER 20, FROM 4 TO 5 PM
Pianist Boris Bonnet welcomes you to the rooms for a moment of musical sharing between French composers, including Debussy...
Take advantage of the European Heritage Days to (re)discover the Maison natale Claude-Debussy.
SATUR. SEPTEMBER 20, FROM 4 TO 5 PM
Pianist Boris Bonnet welcomes you to the rooms for a moment of musical sharing between French composers, including Debussy...
The Photo Club Saint Germain offers you a pictorial tour of emblematic places in Fourqueux's heritage. In particular, you'll be able to catch a glimpse of present-day places and how they were depicted in paintings by artists such as Maurice Denis and Denis Maret.
The media library team invites you to discover areas that are usually inaccessible to the public: the store and professional areas. You'll learn all about the life of documents, from selection to shelving, and the role of librarians.
Discover the Bel-Air eco-district and its architectural history! Solve the riddles, collect the clues, and find the secret code that will open the doors to the Rotondes... a surprise may be waiting for you!
Meet at Place des Rotondes, in front of the Micro-Folie.
Ages 8 and up. Children under 18 are the responsibility of their parents for the duration of the game.
Stéphane Marin invites you to (re-)discover the Bel-Air sound environment on the move, through a variety of sensitive listening experiences. By using "augmented" listening, superimposing a porous sound creation on natural "in situ" listening, he proposes to radically alter our experience of the site. The sounds in the headphones "rub up" against the sounds of the spaces we pass through: the result is a synesthetic discovery of the sound environment.
Emmanuelle Loizeau, PhD in art history and lecturer, author of a thesis on Louis and Clément Métézeau (architects of Henri IV and Louis XIII, who worked at Saint-Germain), offers a unique lecture on the vanished Château-Neuf at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Discover the jewels in the collections of the Maurice Denis Museum and learn about the works of Maurice Denis and the Nabis artists. Discover the gentle, symbolic works of the early 20th century.
Guided tours of the "Masterpieces of the Museum" exhibition in 30 minutes. Regular departures throughout the afternoon.
A fun, participative family workshop in which participants themselves become the museum's tour guides. An ideal way to discover the museum while having a good laugh.
Information to follow on the museum website.
Set off on an urban stroll to discover the Bel-Air district, an area of varied architecture and more recent history, reflecting the city's urban evolution. Accompanied by a guide/lecturer, explore the streets, squares and green spaces as you decipher the major stages in the development of this lively, fast-changing residential district.
Immerse yourself in the lively soul of the Saint-Christophe district, where heritage and craftsmanship come together! Accompanied by a tour guide, discover this charming neighborhood, its typical alleyways and its passionate craftspeople. A walk that combines local history, craftsmanship and human encounters.
Discover the historic quarters of Saint-Germain-en-Laye! Accompanied by a tour guide, stroll through the timelessly charming alleyways and discover the stories behind the town's mansions, the illustrious figures who have left their mark on the town, and the sometimes unusual origins of the street names.
Guided tour of the premises and commented presentation of Masonic objects and decorations.
Saturday and Sunday at 4pm: lecture on "What is Freemasonry?
Housed in the former Museum building, the Apothecary's shop is only open to the public on rare occasions. Its collection of blue-patterned earthenware pots, glass jars and hand-decorated medicinal plant boxes is housed in original Louis XV-period woodwork. Originating from the Hôtel-Dieu de la Charité and Hôpital Général founded in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the 17th century, the objects evoke 17th- and 18th-century medicine. An olfactory and gustatory test awaits the most curious.
Relive the imperial destiny of Saint-Germain-en-Laye on a guided tour in the footsteps of Napoleon III. From the arrival of the railroads to the development of the national estate, discover how the town was transformed under the Second Empire. A fascinating dive into the urban and political history of Saint-Germain, between incipient modernity and imperial prestige.
Let's take a walk in the footsteps of royalty in Saint-Germain-en-Laye!
Dates and Opening Time
From September 20, 2025 to September 21, 2025
Location
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
saint-germain
78100 Saint Germain en Laye
Prices
Free
Official website
www.saintgermainenlaye.fr
