Nuit des musées 2025: 5 offbeat picks in Paris and Île-de-France

For the 2025 Nuit des musées on Saturday 23 May, Beaux Arts Magazine recommends five lesser-known venues and activities in Paris and Île-de-France. At the Mobilier national, visitors can see the exhibition 'Sèvres, une passion Rothschild. De la Villa Ephrussi à Paris' and watch artisans from the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres demonstrate porcelain-making techniques, including faux-bois painter Frantz Wehrlé. At the Palais de la Porte-Dorée, choreographer Wanjiru Kamuyu will lead dance workshops (dabkeh, singenge, Breton dances) as part of 'Pamoja', a transgenerational choreographic utopia with a DJ set by Rokia Bamba. In Issy-les-Moulineaux, the Parc départemental de l'île Saint-Germain will host a collective fresco inspired by Jean Dubuffet's Tour aux figures, followed by torch-lit visits and sound explorations. The Musée de l'Histoire Vivante in Montreuil-sous-Bois, founded in 1939, will hold a festival on the 1936–1946 decade with poster workshops by Ne rougissez pas!, conferences, and a screening of Pierre Verquin's film La Rage au cœur (2026). At the Château de Sceaux, musicians Magali Léger, Amandine Bontemps, Jean-François Lombard, Jérôme Correas, Olivia Gutherz, and Franck Ratajczyk will perform a baroque reinterpretation of Beatles songs, blending Henry Purcell with the Abbey Road repertoire.