Art Trends in the health profession, Paris exhibition.
Each year, the Paris Association of Artists of Health Professions (AAPS) opens its doors to the public to present the artistic works of its members, all from the world of health. The exhibition, “Art Trends” at the Town Hall of the 6th arrondissement (district) of Paris is open from 26 September to 16 October 2025.
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“Live Standing Up” Paris photo exhibition celebrates strength and resilience.
Through more than 80 powerful photographs, portraits, and life stories that bear witness to the realities of individuals and families facing the consequences of war, natural disasters, and disease, these images illuminate both the hardship and the dignity of those who continue to stand tall despite immense challenges.
The Luxembourg Garden railings in Paris is hosting a moving and thought-provoking free outdoor photo exhibition entitled “Vivre Debout” (“Live Standing Up”), organized in partnership with Handicap International, from 20 September 2025 to 18 January 2026. The exhibition offers a rare and intimate look at the lives, struggles, and extraordinary resilience of people living with disabilities around the world.
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Curtains Up: 2025–2026 Season at the Paris Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe.
This autumn brings something especially exciting to the Paris stage: the launch of the 2025–2026 season at the Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe. Banners now hang across the theatre’s neoclassical façade announcing a fresh lineup of directors and productions that promise provocation, passion, and plenty of conversation.
Housed opposite the Luxembourg Gardens, the Odéon has been at the heart of Parisian theatre since the 18th century.
At the Odéon, the new program highlights an international cast of creative voices, from celebrated directors to innovative performers with themes of politics, identity, and the human condition:
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Autumn at the Luxembourg Garden: Paris 2025 in gold and rust.
There’s something special about the Luxembourg Garden in autumn. Summer’s vibrant green gives way to a more reflective palette of russet leaves crunching underfoot and golden light falling through tree-lined paths.
As you walk through the gravel alleys, the chestnut trees turn to burnt orange, copper, and deep red. The clipped rows of trees framing the central alleys seem almost choreographed in their colour shifts.
Locals linger on the iconic green chairs, often wrapped in scarves, soaking up the late afternoon sun. Joggers trace the familiar circuits, and tennis players bring their own energy to the season’s crisp days.
The grandeur of the palace and formal statues is softened by leaves scattered like confetti. For Parisians, a walk through the garden in autumn feels almost ritualistic: a chance to mark the change of seasons – autumn at the Luxembourg Garden.
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Through the Lens of Architecture: a photography exhibition at Université Paris Cité.
Walking through the streets of Paris, it’s easy to forget that the city itself is one vast open-air architecture museum. Every façade of every building along its boulevards and streets tells a story. This year, in 2025, the Université Paris Cité (Paris City University), celebrating its fifth anniversary, invites the public to see these stories in a new light through a photography exhibition dedicated to architecture.
The exhibition on the railing outside the Campus Saint-Germain-des-Prés, one of the university’s historic sites, highlights the theme “Université Architecte” (Architect University). It is both a celebration of space and a reflection on how academic institutions shape, preserve, and reinterpret the city around them.
The anniversary year has been framed as a moment of architectural reflection. From the Left Bank to the northern arrondissements, Université Paris Cité’s many campuses (highlighted on the map in the exhibition signage) reveal the way knowledge and architecture intertwine.
The photography on display captures the soul of Parisian academic architecture, such as grand lecture halls, quiet courtyards, intricate stonework, and the modern insertions that bridge tradition with innovation. Each photograph offers a dialogue between past and future: the heritage of Haussmann’s Paris meeting the evolving landscapes of 21st-century learning.
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Paris Design Week showcases craftsmanship in decorative arts
Paris Design Week – the 15th international showcase of design in Paris – is held from 4-13 September 2025. In synergy with Maison&Objet, the week is a big event on the European calendar. The week is for both professionals in design and those passionate about design.
The mission is to showcase creators in their natural environment with Paris as their backdrop.
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A fake Picasso sculpture in Paris?
Beside one of the oldest churches in Paris, the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, is a small garden in the Square Laurent-Prache featuring a bust sculpted by Pablo Picasso, a tribute from one artist to another artist. The inscription is “To Guillaume Apollinaire 1880-1918.”
The bust is not the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Born in Italy, Apollinaire (1880-1918) moved to Paris in 1900 at the age of twenty where he befriended Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). He joined the French army as an infantry officer in the first World War (1914-1918) and was hit by shrapnel to the temple in 1916 and died at the age of 38 in 1918 of influenza during the Spanish flu pandemic.
Here is the story of the real face of the bust.
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Jazzy James Joyce Ulysses inspired album.
Irish author James Joyce published his epic novel Ulysses in 1920, 105 years ago. In July 2025 in Adelaide, the novel inspired a jazzy music debut album Here Comes Everything by Derek Pascoe and Chris Martin.
Derek Pascoe, a saxophonist from England was in the British pop group Flintlock. In a Brixton restaurant in 1991, where the band was playing jazz, he met Kirsten Coelho, a woman from Adelaide, Australia, looking for work.
Now, they are married, she became a ceramicist, and he teaches at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide.
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Garden Guardians of Shared Urban Community Greenery in Paris.
Amid the bustling streets of Paris, a phenomenon is blooming. Shared urban gardens, such as the Amiral Roussin Street Garden in the 15th arrondissement, have become verdant havens of community, creativity, and resilience.
Community gardens in France date back to the 19th century, now known as “multi-function gardens” because Eric Duchemin’s 2015 research stated that gardens are associated with “no less than eight fields of intervention: urban planning, environment, economy, food security, health, leisure, education, and social interaction.”
Community gardens have been formally reclassified into different forms, particularly from the 1980s: family gardens (60% of all community gardens and almost all are outside the Paris periphery), shared gardens (24% and almost all are in Paris), and municipal gardens and others (16%).
Here I’m talking about the 24% of shared community gardens in Paris.
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Summer in France.
Every July and particularly August the French enjoy their summer vacation. Paris is quieter as the French take their “grandes vacances” (big holiday) out of the capital city and head to the sea, mountains, or countryside.
Where do they go?
Within France, the French spend their summer vacation at the Atlantic coast, the Mediterranean, the Alps and Pyrenees, or villages in between. The Atlantic coast offers wild beaches and sailing in locations such as Brittany and Vendée. The Mediterranean, such as Provence and Côte d’Azur are good for sunshine and glamour. The Alps and the Pyrenees are for those who like cool air, hiking, and lakes. Many families also return “home” for a few weeks, such as to the village of grandparents or a family cottage for traditional reunions.
This year, I followed the tradition in my own way. I traveled to visit Aunt Jeanne in Romilly, Normandy, in the north of France. Her cottage garden is full of roses and lavender, apple trees and cherry trees, and two cats. Normandy in summer is a few degrees cooler than other places, especially this year as the south of France experienced a heat wave.
For the French, summer is not just about travel; it’s about work-life balance, as they spend time with family and friends, resting and relaxing. Summer in France is about the French “art de vivre” (art of living) in a faraway location, right in their own garden, on their apartment balcony, or at the temporary urban beach areas along the river Seine.
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