Description
The Grand Palais is a listed historic monument located in the very heart of Paris, immediately adjacent to the Champs-Élysées and the Pont Alexandre III. Inaugurated on 1 May 1900 for the Paris Exposition Universelle and designed by architects Henri Deglane, Albert Louvet, Albert Thomas and Charles Girault, it is owned by the French State and operated by the RMN-Grand Palais (Réunion des Musées Nationaux), a public operator under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture. The building covers around 77,000 sqm in total and is distinguished by its central Nave, an immense space covered by a glass roof whose main vessel reaches nearly 240 metres in length and 45 metres beneath the dome, one of the largest glass and steel structures in the world.
The building underwent a major heritage renovation between 2021 and 2024, commissioned by the RMN-Grand Palais under the project management of Chatillon Architectes (lead, François Chatillon, chief architect of historic monuments), for an announced budget of around 466 million euros. The Grand Palais hosted the fencing and taekwondo events of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (July-August 2024), then reopened to the public for its first cultural exhibition, Chiharu Shiota - The Soul Trembles, on 11 December 2024. The full reopening of all the galleries took place in June 2025. The site is now organised around three poles: the monumental Nave for major events, the Galeries Nationales dedicated to museum exhibitions, and the Palais de la Découverte (science museum), whose reopening is now announced for early 2027.
Halls
The Grand Palais offers several complementary spaces, designed for very different event formats.
- Central Nave: 13,500 sqm beneath the great glass roof, with a clear height of 45 m under the dome. The heart of the site and the building's visual signature. ERP capacity of 5,220 people, with cocktail / gala configurations from 2,000 to 6,000 people depending on the staging. A benchmark venue for art fairs, fashion shows, gala dinners and prestige sporting competitions.
- Salon d'Honneur: 1,200 sqm in the heritage wing, a reception space beneath period décor, seated dinners for up to 450 people, cocktails for up to 700 people. Suited to press conferences, launches and VIP dinners.
- Galeries Nationales: a set of modular rooms within the exhibitions pole, configurable as a museum route or as event sub-spaces according to requirements.
- VIP and reception spaces: ancillary rooms for event back-office operations, partner hospitality and press areas.
This versatility allows the site to host a museum exhibition in the Galeries and a private event in the Nave simultaneously, without operational interference.
Access and transport
The Grand Palais enjoys dense Parisian connections, atypical for an exhibition venue of this scale.
- Métro: Champs-Élysées Clemenceau station (lines 1 and 13) about 200 metres away. Franklin D. Roosevelt (lines 1 and 9) and Invalides (lines 8 and 13) stations are in the immediate vicinity.
- RER: RER C, Invalides station, about 600 metres away.
- Bus: RATP lines 28, 42, 72, 73, 80, 83, 93 serving the Champs-Élysées and the Pont Alexandre III.
- Vélib': dedicated stations on Avenue Winston Churchill and Place Clemenceau.
- Car: Concorde public car park nearby. Parking is very constrained within central Paris, so access by public transport remains recommended.
The official address is 3 avenue du Général Eisenhower, 75008 Paris. The 2021-2024 renovation restored the building's historic permeability, with numerous circulations and openings reopened compared with the pre-works configuration, and unified public access increased by around 140% according to Chatillon Architectes.
Services
The Grand Palais operates as a premium event venue with an integrated offering managed by the RMN-Grand Palais.
- In-house catering: cafés and a brasserie deployed throughout the building since the reopening, operated in keeping with the heritage setting.
- Business centre: meeting and back-office spaces available for organisers of premium events, on reservation with the RMN-GP teams.
- RMN-GP exhibitor services: integrated event support (production, logistics, security, ticketing), VIP services, partner hospitality.
- Accessibility for people with reduced mobility: lifts and adapted routes throughout the public circuit, with historic circulations restored.
- RMN bookshop-boutique and cultural offerings associated with the Galeries Nationales exhibitions.
News
The 2021-2024 renovation profoundly reconfigured the use of the site, and the 2025-2026 calendar marks the structured return of the major Parisian events to the Nave.
- 2021-2024 renovation: heritage programme led by Chatillon Architectes (lead), for an announced budget of around 466 million euros. Objectives: architectural restoration, compliance upgrades (safety, accessibility, energy performance), and the reopening of historically closed circulations.
- Paris 2024 Olympics: the Nave hosted the fencing and taekwondo events (July-August 2024).
- Cultural reopening to the public: 11 December 2024 with the Chiharu Shiota - The Soul Trembles exhibition, the first major exhibition in the renovated Nave.
- Full reopening: June 2025, with the opening of all the galleries and the full resumption of the museum programme.
- Restoration of urban permeability: historic circulations restored (north-south Champs-Élysées / Seine axis, east-west axis), smoothing visitor flows between the Nave, the Galeries and the future opening of the Palais de la Découverte.
- Palais de la Découverte: reopening now announced for the first quarter of 2027 (after successive delays), the site's third structuring pole.
- Return of the major Parisian trade fairs: Paris Photo, Art Paris and the Festival du Livre de Paris have returned to the Nave after their temporary exile to the Grand Palais Éphémère (Champ-de-Mars) during the renovation.
Flagship trade shows
The Grand Palais hosts a dense calendar of art, fashion and culture fairs, organised around the monumental Nave and the Galeries Nationales.
- Paris Photo: the leading international art photography fair, traditionally organised in November in the Nave.
- Art Paris: a modern and contemporary art fair, a springtime (April) fixture beneath the glass roof.
- Festival du Livre de Paris: the major Parisian celebration of books and publishing, scheduled in April in the Nave since its return to the Grand Palais.
The events programme also includes recurring fixtures not covered by the B2B directory: the Saut Hermès (international show-jumping competition, spring), the Bal des Vampires (private gala), haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion shows, and institutional gala dinners. The site simultaneously hosts the temporary exhibitions of the Galeries Nationales and the permanent programme of the Palais de la Découverte once reopened.