Paris book fair starts
The Festival du Livre de Paris opens at the Grand Palais from April 17–19 and is highlighting bande dessinée (comics) with an expanded program of events and meetings ( ). Organizers have also scheduled ‘Cabaret Extra,’ a literature-meets-performance strand in partnership with the Centre Pompidou running across the same weekend (cult.news).
Paris’s annual book fair opens at the Grand Palais on Friday, April 17, with comics taking center stage this year. (festivaldulivredeparis.fr) The Festival du Livre de Paris runs from April 17 to April 19, 2026, and the official program says the three-day event will spread across the Grand Palais with talks, signings and exhibitions. (grandpalais.fr) Organizers have named bande dessinée — the French term for comics and graphic storytelling — as the guest of honor, with exhibitions, bookstore space, signings and a dedicated slate of events for the medium. (festivaldulivredeparis.fr) The festival’s main 2026 theme is travel, and the comics program is being folded into that broader pitch with new talks built around romance and journeys. (festivaldulivredeparis.fr; grandpalais.fr) That focus gives a marquee Paris platform to a format that already carries unusual weight in French publishing and cultural life, where comics are treated as the “ninth art,” not a side category. (festivaldulivredeparis.fr; bnf.fr) The official comics program says the fair will stage about 20 panel discussions crossing comics with novels, the humanities and poetry, plus eight new sessions tied to this year’s themes. (festivaldulivredeparis.fr) A separate strand, “Cabaret Extra!,” will run over the same April 17 to 19 weekend in partnership with the Centre Pompidou, turning Gallery 2 of the Grand Palais into a space for readings, performances and literary spectacle. (centrepompidou.fr) The Centre Pompidou says the cabaret returns after a first edition and will again mix live literature with stage acts and visual performance, extending the fair beyond book tables and author queues. (centrepompidou.fr; centrepompidou.fr) The Grand Palais has become a bigger part of the fair’s identity since the event moved back under its glass roof, and this year’s edition adds children’s programming in the Salon Seine on April 18 and 19. (grandpalais.fr; grandpalais.fr) When the doors open on April 17, the fair will be selling books, but its 2026 pitch is wider than that: comics under the nave, performances in Gallery 2, and three days built around literature as an event. (festivaldulivredeparis.fr; centrepompidou.fr)
