Cabaret(s): a free photo show on the railings of the square du Temple

The exhibition Cabaret(s) – Histoire d'une transmission vivante hangs from 22 September to 18 December 2026 on the railings of the square du Temple – Elie-Wiesel, a small park on rue de Bretagne in the 3rd arrondissement (the Marais). It is free and outdoors: you look at it from the pavement as you walk along the park.

The show covers more than 160 years of French cabaret in five themes. You meet La Goulue and Grille-d'Égout, cancan dancers photographed in 1886, then Mistinguett, Joséphine Baker, Coccinelle and Michou, and today's companies: the Moulin Rouge, the Crazy Horse, Madame Arthur, the Cabaret de Poussière.

The exhibition booklet shows the mix: black-and-white contact sheets from the 1950s next to revues in white feathers and dressing rooms caught between two acts. The art direction is by Véronique Prugnaud, the text by Céline du Chéné, a journalist and cabaret performer.

It is part of the Saison Cabaret run by the French Ministry of Culture. You can see it at any time of day, with no ticket. Take metro line 3 to Temple, or lines 3 and 11 to Arts et Métiers, a short walk from the Carreau du Temple.