This free fragrance installation will soon leave the courtyard of the Maison Victor Hugo.

As the new season begins, Paris Design Week is set to awaken all the senses. From 10 to 19 September 2026, the urban design festival returns to transform Paris into a full‑scale laboratory, where galleries, museums, secret courtyards and heritage addresses lend their walls — and sometimes their gardens — to designers. Furniture, architecture, materials, craft and more unexpected experiences step out of the showrooms to meet the public directly, with numerous free events. And since design isn’t just about what you look at, some installations are also meant to tickle the nose,

Paris Design Week 2026: sensory experiences still to try out before September 19
The senses stay alert a little longer during Paris Design Week, as several immersive and experiential installations continue their run through September 19, 2026. [Read more]

The proof is staged in the courtyard of the Maison Victor Hugo, where Lucas Huillet and Alexandre Helwani lend their noses to literature with Anankè, on view from 4 to 20 September 2026. Drawing primarily on Notre-Dame de Paris and Les Contemplations, the duo seizes this Greek word tied to the urge to trace the origins of architecture, writing, and memory. At the heart of the installation, a contemporary menhir releases incense while its fractured twin becomes ceramic furniture adorned with scent capsules, with an olfactory creation imagined by master perfumer Nathalie Lorson of dsm-firmenich. The pairing is no accident: Lucas Huillet moves between design, interior architecture, and ceramics, while Alexandre Helwani is a perfumer and historian of fragrance; the two have been crossing their disciplines for four years. Even the museum café joins in the game with a menu inspired by the installation’s scents.

• To be read
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• This week's best bets for September 7–13, 2026 in Paris and Île-de-France
• 10 things to do in Yvelines this weekend, September 19–20, 2026

Hugo could make stones talk; here, they’re also set to tickle our noses.

Paris Design Week 2026: the events, installations and exhibitions to discover before it ends
The Paris Design Week is coming to a close, with only a few days left to wander through installations, exhibitions and events scattered across the capital. [Read more]