Nuits de la lecture 2025: heritage in all its aspects!

The Nuits de la lecture (Night of Reading) has been a must-attend event of the French and international cultural landscape for more than a decade, and in 2024, about 8,500 events in 4,000 places attracted a still growing number of visitors to discover how to “share reading”. This year, during four days and four nights, the 9th “Nuits” invited again the audience to participate in events specifically organised on heritage sites as inspiring for the audience than for creators.

Sites full of heritage history

A major cultural event of the new year period standing out with highlights, the Nuits de la Lecture offer high diversity of events focusing on literature in sites full of history. So many places that want to reaffirm “the critical lace of books and reading for all”.

Here’s a quick presentation of events organised in Paris and other French regions, in prestigious places, thanks to the participation of the French National Centre of Monuments:

• The Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine opened the Nuits de la lecture 2025 on Thursday 23 January. As the event befits, the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine was the perfect place to launch this year’s event. The event offered a literary karaoke, readings and even the chance to listen to poems on your phone!
• The Arc de Triomphe offered an evening lecture tour entitled The Arc de Triomphe as seen by Victor Hugo;
• the Conciergerie hosted readings in its kitchens;
• Voltaire’s château in Ferney opened its doors for an unusual visit on the theme of Voltaire and the women;
• the royal necropolis in the basilica of Saint-Denis organised a literary tour;
• the Cité internationale de la langue française at the Château de Villers-Cotterêts organised a special day dedicated to medieval writer Rabelais;
• five iconic French monuments hosted authors in a residence, including George Sand’s house in Nohant, Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey and the medieval city of Carcassonne. 

As a long-standing partner of the Nuits de la lecture, Paris Musées is also working “to promote the event” in a variety of venues, museums and artists’ and writers’ houses, “all of whose collections bear witness to the history of Paris”. These include the Catacombs, the Bourdelle museum, the houses of Balzac and Victor Hugo, the Musée Carnavalet and the Palais Galliera.

Events all over the world

And more events were planned all over the world. An interactive map (listing no less than 5,800 initiatives) accessible from the dedicated website, listed the events in France, and worldwide: about 100 events most of the time organised by French institutes, embassies and high schools.

Here’s a few examples of these initiatives organised for young people and the general audience:

• in Spain, at the French Institute in Madrid, creative writing workshops and reading sessions;
• in Sweden, an “authors’ dinner” in Göteborg and a “Nuit blanche de la lecture” at the Lycée Français Saint-Louis in Stockholm;
• in Canada, Nuits de la lecture in Montreal at La Petite-Patrie library;
• in Tunisia, Nuits de la lecture at the Lycée Gustave Flaubert in Marsa;
• in Mongolia, at the National Library in Ulan Bator, a conference to highlight the Mongolian literary heritage, little known to the French;
• in Lebanon, at the Grand Lycée Franco-libanais in Beirut, an interdisciplinary project on Lebanon through the poems of Nadia Tuéni;
• in Italy, at the Lycée Chateaubriand in Rome, readings of heritage texts;
• in Mauritania, at the Lycée Français Théodore Monod, read alouds of written works by pupils from the lycée on the theme of heritage;
• in the United States, at the San Diego French American School, reading championships and author dinners.

In addition to all these face-to-face events, there is also a “remote programme”, so you can take part in the Nuits de la lecture from the comfort of your armchair!

A woman sponsor, a man sponsor, and literary resources

After Maria Pourchet and François-Henri Désérable in 2022, Marie Darrieussecq in 2023, Claire Marin and Angelin Preljocaj in 2024, this year’s patron will be writer Maylis de Kerangal and journalist Stéphane Bern. 

Maylis de Kerangal is a writer who spent her childhood in Le Havre, the daughter and granddaughter of a sea captain, and whose literary work often revolves around the sea. Her latest book, Jour de ressac, published in August 2024, “won the favours of literary critics” and was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt 2024.

Stéphane Bern is a journalist, writer, TV presenter, radio host, producer and actor. “Committed to the defence of heritage”, Stéphane Bern has been involved in safeguarding and restoring heritage sites for over ten years.

As in the previous edition, the Centre national du livre has produced a montage of classic and contemporary texts on the theme of heritage. This booklet, designed as “a tool that can be adapted to suit everyone’s needs and desires”, is available free of charge on the Nuits de la lecture website. The CNL is also offering a bibliography of fifty titles on this year’s theme.
 “Carefully chosen by a panel of experts”, this choice should appeal to “all ages and tastes, mixing genres and periods”.