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Greenhouses to visit in France

The Verrière atlas lists 58 greenhouses in France, built between 1684 and 2026.

France preserves major milestones in the history of glass: the Orangery at Versailles (1684–1686), the Grandes Serres of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, among the world's first iron-framed glasshouses, those of Lyon's Parc de la Tête d'Or, and the Jardin des Serres d'Auteuil on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne.

58Greenhouses
1684Oldest — Orangery of the Palace of Versailles
2026Newest — Jardin bouquetier greenhouse, Château de La Motte-Tilly
53Cities
See them on the globe →

Normandy (10)

Greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes de Rouen (central greenhouse of 1842), Rouen, Normandy
1839–1842

Greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes de Rouen (central greenhouse of 1842)

🇫🇷 Rouen, Normandy
A cast-iron and glass central greenhouse of 1839-1842, listed in 1975, extended by seven houses of 1884 and tropical houses of 1936.
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Rotunda greenhouse of the Château des Ravalet, Tourlaville (Cherbourg-en-Cotentin), Normandy
1873–1875

Rotunda greenhouse of the Château des Ravalet

🇫🇷 Tourlaville (Cherbourg-en-Cotentin), Normandy
A rare nineteenth-century rotunda greenhouse still standing in Normandy, where pineapples and bananas were grown for the château's guests.
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Tropical greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes de Caen, Caen, Normandy
1988

Tropical greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes de Caen

🇫🇷 Caen, Normandy
The older houses, destroyed along with the orangery in the 1944 bombardments, were replaced in 1988 by exhibition houses for exotic plants.
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1999 · 1998

Naturospace, tropical butterfly and bird house under a glazed roof

🇫🇷 Honfleur (Calvados), Normandy
A 1,000 m² tropical greenhouse under a glazed roof in Honfleur, where over 1,000 butterflies fly free among heliconias, orchids and giant ferns.
FranceView entry →
2006

Alligator Greenhouse (Serre aux alligators), Alligator Bay

🇫🇷 Beauvoir, Normandy
Opened in 2006 near Mont-Saint-Michel, this 2,500 m² greenhouse holds what the park describes as the largest group of alligators in Europe.
FranceView entry →
2012

Biotropica Tropical Greenhouse (Les jardins animaliers Biotropica)

🇫🇷 Val-de-Reuil, Normandy
A 5,000 m² zoo greenhouse where a Komodo dragon, tamanduas and gharials live beneath tropical vegetation.
FranceView entry →
2018

Tropical Greenhouse of the Évreux Botanical Garden ("Le Cube")

🇫🇷 Évreux, Normandy
A 10 m glass cube designed by a local artist shelters more than 400 tropical plants in the former garden of Évreux's Capuchin friars.
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Collection Greenhouses of the Jardins suspendus (Fort de Sainte-Adresse), Le Havre, Normandy

Collection Greenhouses of the Jardins suspendus (Fort de Sainte-Adresse)

🇫🇷 Le Havre, Normandy
In the courtyard of a Second Empire fort, 3,000 m² of collection greenhouses hold, among much else, more than 430 begonia varieties.
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Greenhouses of the Château du Champ de Bataille, Sainte-Opportune-du-Bosc, Normandy

Greenhouses of the Château du Champ de Bataille

🇫🇷 Sainte-Opportune-du-Bosc, Normandy
Two glasshouses created by Jacques Garcia: one holds 600 to 800 orchid varieties, the other tree ferns, in the "Norman Versailles".
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Greenhouses of the Parc Emmanuel-Liais, Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, Normandy

Greenhouses of the Parc Emmanuel-Liais

🇫🇷 Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, Normandy
The two greenhouses of the scientist Emmanuel Liais, once head of Rio's imperial observatory, hold 4,000 varieties of rare plants.
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Nouvelle-Aquitaine (6)

1987–1989

Conservatoire du Bégonia (Begonia Conservatory)

🇫🇷 Rochefort, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
A 1,000 m² greenhouse devoted to a single genus, the begonia, holding what it describes as the largest collection in the world.
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2005–2007

Greenhouses of the Jardin botanique de la Bastide

🇫🇷 Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Seven greenhouses carried by a frame of whole tree trunks and topped by a photovoltaic canopy, on the right bank of the Garonne.
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Terre de Dragons Tropical Dome (formerly Planète des Crocodiles), Civaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
2008

Terre de Dragons Tropical Dome (formerly Planète des Crocodiles)

🇫🇷 Civaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
An 82-metre tropical dome heated with cooling water from the neighbouring nuclear power station.
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Aimé Bonpland Exhibition Greenhouse (Municipal Horticultural Centre)

🇫🇷 La Rochelle (Mireuil), Nouvelle-Aquitaine
A 1,400 m² glasshouse in a municipal horticultural centre, staged as a world tour of plants, with a section devoted to Aimé Bonpland.
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Greenhouses of Planet Exotica (formerly Parc des Jardins du Monde)

🇫🇷 Royan, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
A tropical house of over 800 m² where banana plants, orchids and tillandsias share the space with reptiles in terrariums.
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Tropical Greenhouse of the Bourgailh Ecosite

🇫🇷 Pessac, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Heated for five years with biogas from the old landfill beside it, it holds 3,500 plants donated by a horticulturist.
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Grand Est (5)

Greenhouses of the Metz Botanical Garden, Montigny-lès-Metz, Grand Est
1861 · 1882

Greenhouses of the Metz Botanical Garden

🇫🇷 Montigny-lès-Metz, Grand Est
Iron glasshouses born of Metz's 1861 exhibition, moved into the botanical garden and the subject of a restoration programme since 2017.
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Bary Greenhouse (former Victoria House), University of Strasbourg Botanical Garden, Strasbourg, Grand Est
1884–1885

Bary Greenhouse (former Victoria House), University of Strasbourg Botanical Garden

🇫🇷 Strasbourg, Grand Est
The last survivor of the grand imperial glasshouses of 1884, this twelve-sided house was built for the giant Victoria water lily and remains unique in France.
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Tropical greenhouse of the Jardin des Papillons, Hunawihr, Hunawihr (Haut-Rhin), Grand Est
1988

Tropical greenhouse of the Jardin des Papillons, Hunawihr

🇫🇷 Hunawihr (Haut-Rhin), Grand Est
A tropical greenhouse of about 1,000 m² on the Alsace wine route, where hundreds of exotic butterflies fly free.
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2025

Horizon Afrique Tropical House, Mulhouse Zoological and Botanical Park

🇫🇷 Mulhouse, Grand Est
Opened in 2025, a tropical house roofed with ETFE cushions where pygmy hippos share the space with free-flying birds.
FranceView entry →
Tropical Greenhouses of the Jean-Marie Pelt Botanical Garden, Villers-lès-Nancy, Grand Est

Tropical Greenhouses of the Jean-Marie Pelt Botanical Garden

🇫🇷 Villers-lès-Nancy, Grand Est
Seven large themed greenhouses covering 2,500 m², from a palm house with threatened plants to a liana gallery and carnivorous plants.
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Occitanie (5)

Orangery and Greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes de Montpellier, Montpellier, Occitanie
1802 · 1860

Orangery and Greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes de Montpellier

🇫🇷 Montpellier, Occitanie
In France's oldest botanical garden, an orangery of 1806 with thirteen glazed bays and a Martins greenhouse of 1860 devoted to cacti and succulents.
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Mazel Greenhouses, La Bambouseraie en Cévennes (Prafrance), Générargues (near Anduze), Occitanie
1860

Mazel Greenhouses, La Bambouseraie en Cévennes (Prafrance)

🇫🇷 Générargues (near Anduze), Occitanie
Built in 1860 by Eugène Mazel for his most tender species, these glasshouses now hold tropical plants and temporary exhibitions.
FranceView entry →
Toulouse Municipal Greenhouses (boulevard de la Marne), Toulouse, Occitanie
1877–1893

Toulouse Municipal Greenhouses (boulevard de la Marne)

🇫🇷 Toulouse, Occitanie
Nineteenth-century greenhouses dismantled at the Jardin des Plantes and rebuilt on boulevard de la Marne, where they grow 330,000 plants a year.
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Greenhouse (orangery) of the Jardin Massey, Tarbes, Occitanie
1880–1886

Greenhouse (orangery) of the Jardin Massey

🇫🇷 Tarbes, Occitanie
A metal greenhouse with a glazed dome, built by the city of Tarbes in place of the winter garden Placide Massey had planned.
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Greenhouses of the Jardin botanique Henri Gaussen, Toulouse, Occitanie

Greenhouses of the Jardin botanique Henri Gaussen

🇫🇷 Toulouse, Occitanie
A university botanical garden founded in 1796 and reopened in 2008, whose greenhouses cover humid rainforest, succulents and carnivorous plants.
FranceView entry →

Île-de-France (5)

Greenhouses of the Jardin du Luxembourg (Senate greenhouses), Paris 6th arrondissement, Île-de-France
1796 · 1999

Greenhouses of the Jardin du Luxembourg (Senate greenhouses)

🇫🇷 Paris 6th arrondissement, Île-de-France
An orchid collection founded in 1838 and grown by the French Senate in a house of seven 'chapels', each with its own climate.
FranceView entry →
Grandes Serres du Jardin des Plantes, Paris, Île-de-France
1834–1836

Grandes Serres du Jardin des Plantes

🇫🇷 Paris, Île-de-France
Rohault de Fleury's two cast-iron and glass pavilions, designed from 1834, mark the beginning of metal architecture in France.
FranceView entry →
Palmarium of the French Garden, Albert-Kahn Museum and Gardens, Boulogne-Billancourt, Île-de-France
1895

Palmarium of the French Garden, Albert-Kahn Museum and Gardens

🇫🇷 Boulogne-Billancourt, Île-de-France
Albert Kahn's palmarium, listed as a historic monument in 2015, closes the French garden where the banker once staged concerts.
FranceView entry →
Grande Serre of the Parc zoologique de Paris (Vincennes Zoo), Paris 12th arrondissement, Île-de-France
2014

Grande Serre of the Parc zoologique de Paris (Vincennes Zoo)

🇫🇷 Paris 12th arrondissement, Île-de-France
A 4,000 m² tropical glasshouse built when the Vincennes zoo was entirely reconstructed and reopened in April 2014.
FranceView entry →
Greenhouses of the École Du Breuil (hot houses of the school garden), Paris 12th arrondissement (Bois de Vincennes), Île-de-France

Greenhouses of the École Du Breuil (hot houses of the school garden)

🇫🇷 Paris 12th arrondissement (Bois de Vincennes), Île-de-France
The teaching greenhouses of the horticultural school founded by Haussmann in 1867 have opened to visitors one afternoon a week since 2023.
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Centre-Val de Loire (4)

Greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes d'Orléans (Grande serre and tropical house), Orléans, Centre-Val de Loire
1834–1836

Greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes d'Orléans (Grande serre and tropical house)

🇫🇷 Orléans, Centre-Val de Loire
A neoclassical great greenhouse of 1836 and a tropical house built in the orangery in 1834, beside the Loire.
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Greenhouses of the Jardin botanique de Tours (Biodivers houses and Jeanne Barret greenhouse), Tours, Centre-Val de Loire
1869

Greenhouses of the Jardin botanique de Tours (Biodivers houses and Jeanne Barret greenhouse)

🇫🇷 Tours, Centre-Val de Loire
Nineteenth-century collection houses, renovated since 2007 around South African flora, tropical understory and useful tropical plants.
FranceView entry →
1994

Tropical Bird Greenhouse, ZooParc de Beauval

🇫🇷 Saint-Aignan, Centre-Val de Loire
Right at the park entrance, 2,000 m² of covered jungle where 450 tropical birds, some of them flying free, swirl around visitors.
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Equatorial Dome, ZooParc de Beauval, Saint-Aignan, Centre-Val de Loire
2017–2020

Equatorial Dome, ZooParc de Beauval

🇫🇷 Saint-Aignan, Centre-Val de Loire
A 38 m glass dome opened in 2020: a steel frame of about 1,000 tonnes shelters an equatorial forest and close to 25,000 animals.
FranceView entry →

Hauts-de-France (4)

Palais Rameau (circular horticultural greenhouse), Lille, Hauts-de-France
1879

Palais Rameau (circular horticultural greenhouse)

🇫🇷 Lille, Hauts-de-France
A circular cast-iron horticultural greenhouse under a glass rotunda, listed together with its neo-Moorish Lille palace of 1879.
FranceView entry →
Equatorial Greenhouse, Jardin des plantes de Lille, Lille, Hauts-de-France
1969–1970

Equatorial Greenhouse, Jardin des plantes de Lille

🇫🇷 Lille, Hauts-de-France
A brutalist glasshouse of 1970 with a flower-petal plan, set on three concrete piers, likened to the Barbican conservatory in London.
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Educational Greenhouses of the Tourcoing Botanical Garden, Tourcoing, Hauts-de-France
2009

Educational Greenhouses of the Tourcoing Botanical Garden

🇫🇷 Tourcoing, Hauts-de-France
Eight teaching greenhouses, four cool and four warm, in the garden bequeathed to Tourcoing by wool spinner Émile Leplat.
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Napoleon III Greenhouse, Jardin des plantes d'Amiens, Amiens, Hauts-de-France

Napoleon III Greenhouse, Jardin des plantes d'Amiens

🇫🇷 Amiens, Hauts-de-France
Set on piles in former marshland, this greenhouse with a central palm house has a glass roof of panes overlapping like fish scales.
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Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (3)

Tropical Greenhouse of La Ferme aux crocodiles, Pierrelatte, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
1994

Tropical Greenhouse of La Ferme aux crocodiles

🇫🇷 Pierrelatte, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
A huge tropical greenhouse in the Drôme, heated by hot water from the cooling circuit of the Eurodif plant on the Tricastin nuclear site.
FranceView entry →
Botanical Greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes Joséphine Baker, Grenoble, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Botanical Greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes Joséphine Baker

🇫🇷 Grenoble, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Three greenhouses with different climates in a municipal botanical garden dating from 1842, renovated in 2003 in the spirit of 1845 glasshouses.
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La Serre Michelin (tropical greenhouse at Michelin's headquarters)

🇫🇷 Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
A tropical glasshouse of rubber trees at Michelin's historic headquarters, visited with a guide after a film on the rubber tree.
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Brittany (3)

Greenhouses and Orangery of the Parc du Thabor, Rennes, Brittany
1862–1863

Greenhouses and Orangery of the Parc du Thabor

🇫🇷 Rennes, Brittany
Iron-and-glass greenhouses with three domed pavilions, bombed in 1944 and replaced by concrete houses that now shelter cacti.
FranceView entry →
Tropical Greenhouses of the Conservatoire botanique national de Brest, Brest, Brittany

Tropical Greenhouses of the Conservatoire botanique national de Brest

🇫🇷 Brest, Brittany
Four climate rooms devoted to more than 200 taxa, 95% of them threatened, in the Stang-Alar valley.
FranceView entry →

Trévarez kitchen-garden greenhouses (Labotanique great greenhouse)

🇫🇷 Saint-Goazec, Brittany
Since 2015 the water-heated greenhouses of the Belle Époque kitchen garden have housed the Labotanique, a hands-on plant discovery space.
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Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (3)

Noilly-Prat Tropical Greenhouse, Jardin botanique E. M. Heckel (Parc Borély), Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
1870

Noilly-Prat Tropical Greenhouse, Jardin botanique E. M. Heckel (Parc Borély)

🇫🇷 Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
An 1870 winter garden moved in 1982 from a vermouth family's estate, closed since 2004 and awaiting restoration.
FranceView entry →
Hot greenhouse (serre chaude) of the Serre de la Madone garden, Menton, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
1930

Hot greenhouse (serre chaude) of the Serre de la Madone garden

🇫🇷 Menton, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
A hot greenhouse of about 1930 with a glass roof on an exposed metal frame, in Lawrence Johnston's acclimatisation garden at Menton.
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Great Tropical Greenhouse of Parc Phœnix ("Green Diamond"), Nice, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
1990

Great Tropical Greenhouse of Parc Phœnix ("Green Diamond")

🇫🇷 Nice, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
One of Europe's largest single-span glasshouses, with no intermediate supports, nicknamed the "Green Diamond".
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Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (2)

Bernard Boissier Tropical Collection Greenhouses (Parc du Moulin à Tan), Sens, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
2000

Bernard Boissier Tropical Collection Greenhouses (Parc du Moulin à Tan)

🇫🇷 Sens, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Some 1,500 tropical plants gathered on 600 m² around a pool where the giant water lily Victoria cruziana blooms.
FranceView entry →
2025

The Biome: greenhouses of the Besançon Botanical Garden

🇫🇷 Besançon, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Besançon's botanical garden, founded in 1726, regained brand-new greenhouses in 2025 on the Bouloie campus after seven years without them.
FranceView entry →

Pays de la Loire (2)

Greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes de Nantes (Palmarium and Orangery), Nantes, Pays de la Loire
1895–1900

Greenhouses of the Jardin des plantes de Nantes (Palmarium and Orangery)

🇫🇷 Nantes, Pays de la Loire
A Palmarium opened in 1896 under a 10 m dome, and a salvaged winter garden that now shelters the cactus collection.
FranceView entry →
Tropical Agronomy Greenhouses, Parc du Grand-Blottereau, Nantes, Pays de la Loire
1902

Tropical Agronomy Greenhouses, Parc du Grand-Blottereau

🇫🇷 Nantes, Pays de la Loire
Built in 1902 to teach colonial agronomy, these glasshouses still shelter useful tropical plants more than a century old.
FranceView entry →

Elsewhere (6)

Orangery of the Palace of Versailles, Versailles
1684–1686

Orangery of the Palace of Versailles

🇫🇷 Versailles
Designed by Hardouin-Mansart to shelter more than a thousand of Louis XIV's orange trees in winter.
FranceView entry →
Great Glasshouses of the Parc de la Tête d'Or, Lyon
1877–1880

Great Glasshouses of the Parc de la Tête d'Or

🇫🇷 Lyon
Nicknamed the 'cathedral of glass and steel', they hold a cycad planted at the 1883 opening — the botanical garden's oldest resident.
FranceView entry →
Jardin des Serres d'Auteuil, Paris
1895–1898

Jardin des Serres d'Auteuil

🇫🇷 Paris
The City of Paris's greenhouse garden, where plants for municipal buildings were once produced.
FranceView entry →
Vacherot & Lecoufle orchid greenhouses, Boissy-Saint-Léger, Val-de-Marne
1886 · 1900

Vacherot & Lecoufle orchid greenhouses

🇫🇷 Boissy-Saint-Léger, Val-de-Marne
An orchid house founded in 1886 and a pioneer of cloning, whose growing greenhouses of 1900 open during public open days.
FranceView entry →
1985 · 2026

Greenhouses of the Versailles-Chèvreloup Arboretum

🇫🇷 Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt, Yvelines
The Museum's tropical collections, over 4,400 species, have grown here under glass chapels since 1985 and can be seen on guided tours.
FranceView entry →
2026

Jardin bouquetier greenhouse, Château de La Motte-Tilly

🇫🇷 La Motte-Tilly, Aube
A wood, glass and cast-iron greenhouse built against the wall of the flower garden, restored to its original design and inaugurated on 22 May 2026.
FranceView entry →

Architecture in France

1917

Chavat water tower

🇫🇷 Podensac
The first known architectural work by Le Corbusier in France: a reinforced-concrete water tower with a panoramic rest room under its tank.
FranceView entry →
1917–1918

Saint-Nicolas-d'Aliermont workers' estate

🇫🇷 Saint-Nicolas-d'Aliermont
A workers' estate designed by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, the future Le Corbusier: 43 houses on either side of a central street, abandoned after a semi-detached show house was built.
FranceView entry →
1921–1922

Villa Berque refurbishment

🇫🇷 Villa Montmorency, Paris 16th arrondissement
A house in the Villa Montmorency reworked by Le Corbusier: a concrete terrace paved in brick and the decoration of the drawing room, in a scheme where colour counts for a great deal.
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Ozenfant House and Studio, Paris (14th arrondissement)
1922–1924

Ozenfant House and Studio

🇫🇷 Paris (14th arrondissement)
A corner house and studio designed with a vast painter's studio on the second floor, lit by a wide corner window and reached by a spiral staircase.
FranceView entry →
1922–1923

Villa Besnus (Ker-Ka-Ré)

🇫🇷 Vaucresson
A Le Corbusier house in Vaucresson whose drawing room, with a 2.85 m ceiling, could double as a studio; it has since lost its footbridge and bow window, and a hipped roof now covers its roof terrace.
FranceView entry →
La Roche and Jeanneret Houses, Paris, 16th arrondissement
1923–1925

La Roche and Jeanneret Houses

🇫🇷 Paris, 16th arrondissement
Two adjoining houses where Le Corbusier introduces the "architectural promenade" for the first time: a hall bathed in light, a ramp, a picture gallery on pilotis.
FranceView entry →
1923–1926

Lipchitz-Miestchaninoff house-studios

🇫🇷 Boulogne-Billancourt
Two sculptors' houses with the studio on the ground floor and the flat above, one with a round stair turret.
FranceView entry →
1924–1925

Esprit Nouveau Pavilion

🇫🇷 Paris (8th arrondissement)
An exhibition pavilion that combined an L-shaped dwelling cell and a diorama, built with a tree at its centre that came out through the roof.
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Frugès Estate (Cité Frugès), Pessac, Gironde
1924–1926

Frugès Estate (Cité Frugès)

🇫🇷 Pessac, Gironde
A workers' neighbourhood conceived as a "laboratory", where a single module five metres square is turned into houses of different shapes with coloured façades.
FranceView entry →
1924–1925

Lège Workers' Estate (Houses and Canteen)

🇫🇷 Lège-Cap-Ferret, Gironde
A workers' estate of six houses and a canteen, with a playing field and a Basque pelota wall, commissioned by a sugar industrialist for the workers of his sawmill.
FranceView entry →
1924

Tonkin House

🇫🇷 Rue Jean-Descas, Bordeaux
A prototype house of cast and sprayed concrete, tried out in Bordeaux before the Lège houses and the Cité Frugès at Pessac.
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Planeix House, Paris (13th arrondissement)
1925–1928

Planeix House

🇫🇷 Paris (13th arrondissement)
A house-studio squeezed between a boulevard and a railway embankment, whose ground floor separates two studio flats with a central garage.
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1925–1926

Sensaud de Lavaud Garage

🇫🇷 Neuilly-sur-Seine
A two-car garage closed by a five-leaf sliding door and clad in a trellis painted green, with a porthole window as its only natural light.
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1926–1927

Cook House

🇫🇷 Boulogne-Billancourt
A reinforced-concrete block on stilts where Le Corbusier applies the five points of modern architecture and inverts the classical plan: bedrooms on the first floor, the double-height reception space on the second.
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1926

Palais du Peuple of the Salvation Army

🇫🇷 Paris 13th arrondissement
A four-storey dormitory block on pilotis, slipped into the back of a plot and opening onto a garden that passes beneath it.
FranceView entry →
1926–1928

Villa Stein-de-Monzie "Les Terrasses"

🇫🇷 Vaucresson
A concrete villa on pilotis, named for the large terraces on its top level and fitted out to house its first owners' art collection.
FranceView entry →
1927–1928

Nestlé Pavilion

🇫🇷 Paris
A fair pavilion dressed in Nestlé's colours and brands, with tin-can replicas jutting from the facade.
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1927

Ternisien House

🇫🇷 Boulogne-Billancourt, Princes district
A minimal house for a musician and a painter on a triangular plot, with a piano-shaped music studio.
FranceView entry →
1927–1930

Villa Church

🇫🇷 Ville-d'Avray
A concrete-and-glass annex opening onto a park, and a library furnished with chromed steel tube seating designed for the place.
FranceView entry →
1929–1931

Beistégui penthouse apartment

🇫🇷 Champs-Élysées, Paris
A rooftop apartment above the Champs-Élysées, arranged around stepped terraces, with an open-air fireplace aligned on the Arc de Triomphe and mechanised installations that Le Corbusier tried out there.
FranceView entry →
Salvation Army floating shelter (Louise-Catherine barge), Quai d'Austerlitz, Paris
1929–1930

Salvation Army floating shelter (Louise-Catherine barge)

🇫🇷 Quai d'Austerlitz, Paris
A 70-metre reinforced-concrete lighter turned into a floating refuge for 150 homeless Parisians, with a roof terrace on its deck that Le Corbusier presented as "a hanging garden".
FranceView entry →
1929–1931

Villa de Mandrot (Villa l'Artaude)

🇫🇷 Le Pradet
An L-shaped house on a stone base, opening south onto a terrace, where Le Corbusier leaves local materials, wood and stone, exposed.
FranceView entry →
1930

S.T.A.R. pavilion

🇫🇷 Le Bourget
A rectangular timber-framed pavilion whose awning and mast would inspire the 1937 Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux.
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Molitor Building and Le Corbusier's Apartment-Studio, Paris 16th arrondissement and Boulogne-Billancourt
1931–1934

Molitor Building and Le Corbusier's Apartment-Studio

🇫🇷 Paris 16th arrondissement and Boulogne-Billancourt
Eight floors of glass façades, in glass bricks and clear plate glass, and at the top the apartment-studio where Le Corbusier lived from 1934 until his death in 1965.
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Villa Savoye, Poissy, Yvelines
1931

Villa Savoye

🇫🇷 Poissy, Yvelines
A white "box in the air" on pilotis, served by a ramp from the ground floor to the solarium.
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Salvation Army Cité de Refuge, Paris, 13th arrondissement
1933

Salvation Army Cité de Refuge

🇫🇷 Paris, 13th arrondissement
Designed as an entirely airtight building, closed on the south side by a thousand square metres of fixed glass, Le Corbusier's Cité de Refuge still shelters people without housing.
FranceView entry →
Swiss Pavilion (Fondation Suisse), Cité Internationale Universitaire, Paris 14th arrondissement
1933

Swiss Pavilion (Fondation Suisse)

🇫🇷 Cité Internationale Universitaire, Paris 14th arrondissement
The first modern building on the Cité Internationale Universitaire: a student residence on pilotis, with a steel frame and a glazed south façade, still in use.
FranceView entry →
1934

Henfel weekend house

🇫🇷 La Celle-Saint-Cloud
A single-storey weekend house only 2.60 m high, originally roofed with planted Catalan vaults pierced by light cannons.
FranceView entry →
Villa Le Sextant, Les Mathes, Charente-Maritime
1934–1935

Villa Le Sextant

🇫🇷 Les Mathes, Charente-Maritime
A holiday house of local rubble stone and timber, planted in the forest sand with no artificial garden, whose rooms are reached only from the terrace and the balcony.
FranceView entry →
1936–1937

Pavilion of the New Times

🇫🇷 Porte Maillot, Paris 16th arrondissement
A yellow tent pavilion on sixteen inclined steel pylons, designed for the 1937 Exposition as a travelling museum of popular education devoted to the planning of towns and countryside.
FranceView entry →
1938

Centre scientifique de la Main-d'œuvre

🇫🇷 Square Jean Thébaud, Paris 15th arrondissement
Le Corbusier's refit of former France Mutualiste premises in Paris for one of the first major initiatives against unemployment; the building has been demolished.
FranceView entry →
1938–1940

Rehabilitation centre for the young unemployed

🇫🇷 Rue Le Bua, Paris 20th arrondissement
Two buildings around courtyards, planned for apprenticeship workshops, classrooms, housing and a sports hall, with a gable wall painted by Raoul Simon: a centre to help unemployed young people back into work.
FranceView entry →
1946–1950

Claude et Duval factory

🇫🇷 Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, Vosges
A hosiery mill on pilotis with its offices on the roof terrace, and the first brise-soleil in Le Corbusier's work in France.
FranceView entry →
1951–1954

Doncourt-lès-Conflans flying club

🇫🇷 Doncourt-lès-Conflans, Meurthe-et-Moselle
A clubhouse made of two aluminium shells set back to back on a single stone wall, designed by Le Corbusier with Jacques and Bernard Ogé and Jean Prouvé.
FranceView entry →
Jaoul Houses, Neuilly-sur-Seine
1951–1955

Jaoul Houses

🇫🇷 Neuilly-sur-Seine
Two adjoining houses of brick and raw concrete under so-called Catalan vaults, built for two families, André Jaoul's and his son's; their facades and roofs are listed as historic monuments.
FranceView entry →
Le Corbusier's Cabanon, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Alpes-Maritimes
1951

Le Corbusier's Cabanon

🇫🇷 Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Alpes-Maritimes
A timber cabin 3.66 m square, designed on the measurements of the Modulor, whose two small windows frame the Mediterranean and a hundred-year-old carob tree.
FranceView entry →
Unité d'Habitation of Marseille (Cité Radieuse), Marseille, 8th arrondissement
1952

Unité d'Habitation of Marseille (Cité Radieuse)

🇫🇷 Marseille, 8th arrondissement
A "vertical village" on pilotis, with an interior shopping street, a roof terrace, a nursery school and an art centre, and still lived in.
FranceView entry →
Maison de la Culture, Firminy-Vert, Firminy-Vert, Firminy, Loire
1953–1965

Maison de la Culture, Firminy-Vert

🇫🇷 Firminy-Vert, Firminy, Loire
A long raw-concrete building with a roof hung from cables, whose glazed bays give the façade a musical air.
FranceView entry →
Sainte-Marie de La Tourette Convent, Éveux, Rhône
1953–1960

Sainte-Marie de La Tourette Convent

🇫🇷 Éveux, Rhône
A convent of bare concrete where Le Corbusier deploys a whole palette of light devices: light cannons, light machine-guns, slits, light wells and glass panels.
FranceView entry →
Le Corbusier Stadium, Firminy-Vert, Firminy-Vert, Firminy, Loire
1955–1969

Le Corbusier Stadium, Firminy-Vert

🇫🇷 Firminy-Vert, Firminy, Loire
A concrete stadium set in the bowl of a former sandstone quarry, its stands backed against the slope and entered from the top, as in an ancient theatre.
FranceView entry →
Notre-Dame-du-Haut Chapel, Ronchamp, Haute-Saône
1955

Notre-Dame-du-Haut Chapel

🇫🇷 Ronchamp, Haute-Saône
A concrete shell that seems to float above a thin ribbon of daylight, and glazing that Le Corbusier painted himself.
FranceView entry →
Unité d'Habitation of Rezé (Maison Radieuse), Rezé, near Nantes
1955

Unité d'Habitation of Rezé (Maison Radieuse)

🇫🇷 Rezé, near Nantes
A "vertical village" commissioned by a housing cooperative, with a nursery school on the roof terrace and a tree-planted park.
FranceView entry →
1956

Camping units

🇫🇷 Cap Moderne, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
Five 8 m² holiday cells built to the Modulor's dimensions, raised on pilotis and opening onto the sea through large windows.
FranceView entry →
Grave of Le Corbusier and Yvonne Gallis, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
1958–1965

Grave of Le Corbusier and Yvonne Gallis

🇫🇷 Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
A cement-stone slab marked with a shell, with a cylindrical vase and enamel plaques, which Le Corbusier designed for his wife and himself, facing the Mediterranean.
FranceView entry →
Maison du Brésil (Brazil House), Cité Internationale Universitaire, Paris 14th arrondissement
1959

Maison du Brésil (Brazil House)

🇫🇷 Cité Internationale Universitaire, Paris 14th arrondissement
Painted concrete loggias carried on pilotis, and communal areas opening outwards through undulating glass panels.
FranceView entry →
1959–1961

Unité d'Habitation of Briey-en-Forêt (Cité Radieuse)

🇫🇷 Briey-en-Forêt (Val de Briey), Meurthe-et-Moselle
A Le Corbusier Cité Radieuse built for a new neighbourhood in the middle of the forest, saved from demolition in the late 1980s and now an inhabited condominium.
FranceView entry →
Kembs-Niffer lock buildings, Kembs, Rhône–Rhine Canal (Haut-Rhin)
1960–1962

Kembs-Niffer lock buildings

🇫🇷 Kembs, Rhône–Rhine Canal (Haut-Rhin)
A concrete-and-glass control tower and an administrative building under a hyperbolic-paraboloid roof: the only part of the lock designed by Le Corbusier.
FranceView entry →
Saint-Pierre Church, Firminy, Firminy-Vert, Firminy, Loire
1960–2006

Saint-Pierre Church, Firminy

🇫🇷 Firminy-Vert, Firminy, Loire
A concrete pyramid on a square base that turns into a truncated cone, designed by Le Corbusier and completed in 2006 under José Oubrerie.
FranceView entry →
1965–1967

Unité d'Habitation of Firminy-Vert

🇫🇷 Firminy-Vert, Firminy, Loire
A "vertical city" on pilotis, the last of Le Corbusier's five unités d'habitation, still home to nearly 900 people, with a show apartment, a former school and a roof terrace to visit.
FranceView entry →
1978–1982

Les Arcades du Lac, Le Viaduc and Les Temples du Lac

🇫🇷 Montigny-le-Bretonneux and Voisins-le-Bretonneux, Yvelines
A “Versailles for the people” whose Viaduc, apartments built above an artificial lake, reaches out over the water.
FranceView entry →
1978–1983

Les Espaces d'Abraxas

🇫🇷 Noisy-le-Grand, Seine-Saint-Denis
Three precast-concrete housing blocks of neoclassical inspiration: the 18-storey Palacio, the Théâtre and the Arc.
FranceView entry →
Antigone district, Montpellier, Hérault
1979–2000

Antigone district

🇫🇷 Montpellier, Hérault
A four-lobed square drawn from Italian Renaissance church plans, ringed by buildings whose emergency stairs are housed in gigantic columns.
FranceView entry →
Les Échelles du Baroque, Paris (14th arrondissement)
1979–1985

Les Échelles du Baroque

🇫🇷 Paris (14th arrondissement)
Two housing blocks with precast-concrete façades, around an elliptical square lined with glass columns and a square in the shape of a theatre.
FranceView entry →
Les Colonnes de Saint-Christophe, Cergy, Val-d'Oise
1981–1986

Les Colonnes de Saint-Christophe

🇫🇷 Cergy, Val-d'Oise
A semicircular block of housing that imitates a monumental portico, split over its full height by a gap aligned with the Axe majeur.
FranceView entry →
Grand Louvre, Paris (Louvre Museum)
1983–1993

Grand Louvre

🇫🇷 Paris (Louvre Museum)
Pei's two-stage plan, which drew the elongated palace together into a compact U around one courtyard, with a glass pyramid as the main way in.
FranceView entry →
1986–1989

Metz Arsenal

🇫🇷 Metz, Moselle
A nineteenth-century military arsenal whose layout Bofill turned around to house a sunken main hall lined with wood marquetry.
FranceView entry →
1989

Louvre Auditorium (Michel Laclotte auditorium)

🇫🇷 Paris
A performance hall buried beneath the pyramid, created by I. M. Pei along with the other underground visitor spaces of the Grand Louvre.
FranceView entry →
Louvre Pyramid, Paris
1989

Louvre Pyramid

🇫🇷 Paris
A glass and metal pyramid in the middle of the palace courtyard, whose entrance leads to an underground reception area serving the museum's three wings.
FranceView entry →
Louvre Inverted Pyramid, Paris (Carrousel du Louvre, 1st arrondissement)
1992

Louvre Inverted Pyramid

🇫🇷 Paris (Carrousel du Louvre, 1st arrondissement)
A glass pyramid pointing downwards, like a large chandelier lit by daylight, beneath the Carrousel roundabout.
FranceView entry →
Carrousel du Louvre, Paris (1st arrondissement)
1993

Carrousel du Louvre

🇫🇷 Paris (1st arrondissement)
The underground gallery of the Grand Louvre, lit at its centre by the inverted pyramid, in front of the museum entrance.
FranceView entry →
Cour Marly, Cour Puget and Cour Khorsabad (Richelieu Wing, Louvre), Paris (Louvre Museum, Richelieu Wing)
1993

Cour Marly, Cour Puget and Cour Khorsabad (Richelieu Wing, Louvre)

🇫🇷 Paris (Louvre Museum, Richelieu Wing)
Three courtyards of a former ministry, once open to the sky, roofed in glass to receive sculpture.
FranceView entry →
Meditation Space, UNESCO, Paris (7th arrondissement)
1995

Meditation Space, UNESCO

🇫🇷 Paris (7th arrondissement)
A concrete cylinder topped by a slit of light, laid with stone from Hiroshima, inside the grounds of UNESCO's headquarters.
FranceView entry →
Tour Légende (formerly Tour EDF), Puteaux (La Défense)
2001

Tour Légende (formerly Tour EDF)

🇫🇷 Puteaux (La Défense)
An office tower with a carved, almond-shaped prow facing the plaza, broader at its crown than at its foot.
FranceView entry →
Château La Coste (Art Centre, Chapel, Four Cubes to Contemplate Our Environment), Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, Bouches-du-Rhône
2011

Château La Coste (Art Centre, Chapel, Four Cubes to Contemplate Our Environment)

🇫🇷 Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, Bouches-du-Rhône
A concrete art centre above a pool, a restored 16th-century chapel enclosed in glass and a timber pavilion for four glass cubes, on a wine estate in Provence.
FranceView entry →
Louvre-Lens, Lens
2012

Louvre-Lens

🇫🇷 Lens
A museum of five single-storey volumes in glass and anodised aluminium, built on a former colliery site that has become a twenty-hectare park.
FranceView entry →
Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, Paris (1st arrondissement)
2021

Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection

🇫🇷 Paris (1st arrondissement)
A 9 m high concrete cylinder, inserted by Tadao Ando into the rotunda of an eighteenth-century grain hall.
FranceView entry →

OECD Headquarters, Paris

🇫🇷 Paris (16th arrondissement)
To rebuild the OECD headquarters while keeping large parks, the firm put a large part of the programme underground, including a new conference centre.
FranceView entry →

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