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Lully, Rameau and the Grand Siècle of Louis XIV

FRANCE

→With more than twenty festivals taking place between June and October, France remains one of Europe’s great territories for early music. From the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel to the Alpine valleys, from great Romanesque abbeys to the gardens of the Vendée, and through remarkable sites in Auvergne and the west of the country, these festivals today bring together historically informed performance, exceptional heritage settings and new generations of artists.

→By Total Baroque
FRANCE
Pierre Patel: "View of the Palace and Gardens of Versailles, seen from the Avenue de Paris", 1668. © Museum of French History (Versailles)

The 27 festivals are presented in the order in which they open, from May to September. The summary below lists them all and allows you to go directly to each entry, where you will find the dates, venues, artists and main highlights. Wishing you a wonderful summer of music!

May 29-June 28 – Froville Festival

Froville Festival (Lorraine)

© Festival Froville 2026

“Fusions !”

From May 29 to June 28, 2026

Dedicated to the great Baroque voices, this festival takes place in the Romanesque abbey church of Froville, in Lorraine, and welcomes international singers and specialist ensembles. This year, the festival celebrates fusion in all its forms: the fusion of styles, cultures, generations, and emotions. From Baroque to jazz, from the sacred to the popular, from the shores of Europe to the rhythms of Latin America, Froville remains faithful to its DNA by placing the voice at the heart of its programming. Countertenors are especially in the spotlight this year: Keymon Murrah, accompanied by I Gemelli; William Shelton, winner of the Froville competition, in a programme of 17th-century Italian music; and Xavier Sabata, accompanied by Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu in the programme Furioso, recently released on Aparté. There is also a fusion of generations with the trio La Néréide, led by the young singers Julie Roset (winner of Operalia 2024), Camille Allérat, and Ana Vieira Leite (winner of the 2020 Froville competition). This year’s innovation features a production for young audiences: Baroque Playground, a playful and unexpected encounter between jazz and Baroque. Finally, Sandrine Piau, accompanied by Ophélie Gaillard and Pulcinella, will bring the festival to a close in an atmosphere of intimacy and poetry: a summer journey through Flanders, where gentle charm, light, and elegance come together.

Official website: www.festivaldefroville.com

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June 4-June 12 – Maguelone Festival

Early Music Festival in Maguelone (Occitanie)

© Festival Maguelone

“Resonances”

From June 4 to 12, 2026

Held in the Romanesque cathedral of Maguelone, near Montpellier in the south of France, this festival opens the summer season with programmes devoted to the great works of sacred Baroque music and Mediterranean repertoires. A major cultural event in Occitanie for more than forty years, the festival presents, from June 4 to 12 this year, a programme under the banner of “Resonances,” exploring the connections between classical music and folk traditions, from the Renaissance to the New World. Among the highlights: the closing concert entrusted to Jordi Savall and the ensemble Hespèrion XXI, centred on the art of variation and improvisation; the tribute paid by the festival to Denis Raisin Dadre, notably through the ensemble Doulce Mémoire, which the musician founded; the presence of young European artists with the ensemble Théodora; and concerts by La Rêveuse and the ensemble I Gemelli.

Official website: www.festivalmaguelone.com

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June 7-July 5 – Festival of Saint-Michel en Thiérache

Festival of the Abbey of Saint-Michel en Thiérache (Hauts-de-France)

Saint-Michel Abbey in Thiérache © Horizon Bleu 

The 40th Anniversary Edition

From June 7 to July 5, 2026

This year, the Festival of the Abbey of Saint-Michel en Thiérache celebrates its 40th anniversary. Located on the French-Belgian border, this site, with its Italian Baroque architecture, is truly exceptional, featuring a rare historic French organ dating from 1714 and natural acoustics that are ideal for 17th- and 18th-century music. Twelve concerts, spread across five Sundays and organised around different themes, will once again animate the festival: from the Serenissima Republic of Venice to the Habsburg monarchy, from song to the Royal House of Saint-Cyr and the Folies d’Espagne, or even from Homeric fragments, from the Aegean Sea to the Underworld. The concerts are complemented by meetings with the artists and the opportunity to dine on site, thus combining a commitment to quality with a warm, welcoming atmosphere. This 40th edition will also be marked by several events, including, among others, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Bach’s Mass in B minor; the return of Jordi Savall to the festival; Christina Pluhar’s new recording project with L’Arpeggiata; an “augmented” interpretation of Bach’s Trio Sonatas for organ by Benjamin Alard and Marc Meisel; and the discovery of new and young ensembles and soloists, such as L’Assemblée and La Néréide.

Site officiel : www.festival-saint-michel.fr

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June 20-June 27 – Hardelot Festival

Midsummer Festival of Hardelot (Pas-de-Calais)

© Midsummer Festival 2026

Already Ten Summer Solstices

From June 20 to 27, 2026

In the Elizabethan theatre of Hardelot Castle, the festival explores musical exchanges between France and England in the 17th and 18th centuries. This year’s programme includes the ensemble Le Stagioni, which has chosen an Orient Express-style staging for an Italian version of Acis, Galatea and Polyphemus; and La Palatine, which explores and explodes the codes of early music. On June 24, the evening of the summer solstice, the Elizabethan theatre of Hardelot Castle — a unique venue in France inspired by the theatres of the Elizabethan and Shakespearean era — will celebrate its 10th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the company J’ai tué mon bouc presents a joyful Elizabethan cabaret within this wooden round shaped venue filled with dreams and imagination. British countertenor Tim Mead joins the French orchestra Le Concert de la Loge for an evening on the canals of the Serenissima. Jean-Luc Ho and Simon Pierre invite audiences into the intimacy of Handel’s home on Brook Street in London, while Camille Delaforge and her ensemble Il Caravaggio invite listeners to an encounter between the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Henry Purcell, centred on fabulous sacred stories.

Official website: www.chateau-hardelot.fr

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June 24-July 4 – The Festes Baroques

The Festes Baroques (Aquitaine)

© Apollo’s Cabinet

Music and Wine

From June 24 to July 4, 2026

For its 23rd edition, the 2026 programme of Les Festes Baroques continues to explore early music—both historically and creatively—throughout its performance venues in Bordeaux and the surrounding region. New instrumental and vocal repertoires are featured this year, such as the spectacular music of the Doges of Venice for large brass ensembles from the early 17th century, as well as English virginalist music, composed between around 1560 and 1620 for the virginal, a plucked-string keyboard instrument. With the ensembles Ventosum, Apollo’s Cabinet, Faenza and El Sol. Les Festes Baroques also supports young artists working on attractive forms inspired not only by music, but also by dance and theatre. Alongside the concerts, the festival offers free talks and round tables, public rehearsals with commentary for school audiences, masterclasses and listening guides. At the end of each concert: presentation and tasting of wines from estates in Graves, Pessac-Léognan, Barsac-Sauternes, and Grand Cru Classé vineyards.

Official website: www.festesbaroques.com

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June 28-July 12 – The Baroque Seasons of the Jura

The Baroque Seasons of the Jura

View of the Jura Mountains © Nicodème Peillon

Through Vaults and Mountains

From June 26 to July 12, 2026

Les Saisons Baroques du Jura was created at the initiative of conductor and artistic director Vincent Dumestre. The festival aims to bring Baroque music together with some of the biggest names on today’s musical scene throughout the year in Baume-les-Messieurs, in the Jura. Les Saisons Baroques explores the soul of opera without artifice, through recitals in which every aria becomes a world, every melody a confidence, beneath the abbey’s vaulted ceilings. In the choir or nave of the abbey church of Baume-les-Messieurs, theatrical spaces ‘par excellence’, opera becomes intimate, accessible and vibrant with Purcell, Lully, Cavalli, Handel, and Rameau… under the fingers of harpsichordists Patrick Ayrton, Baptiste Guittet, and Lucile Chabard; beneath the bows of the ensemble Le Caravansérail or Le Poème Harmonique; with the voices of Rachel Redmond, Fernando Escalona, and Marie Théoleyre; or through an opera for young audiences, in collaboration with Idéklic, featuring Igor Bouin. Les Saisons Baroques also takes its audience to Beaune to discover L’Avare, a previously unknown opera by Gasparini based on Molière’s famous subject.

Official website: www.saisonsbaroquesdujura.fr

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July 3-July 26 – Beaune Festival

Beaune Baroque Opera Festival (Burgundy)

© Festival d’opéra baroque de Beaune

“Beyond”

From July 3 to 26, 2026

For more than forty years, the International Baroque Opera Festival of Beaune has transformed the Hospices of Burgundy and the Basilica of Notre-Dame into one of Europe’s great theatres of early music. The 2026 edition, under the theme “Beyond,” will take place from July 3 to 26 and will mark a turning point with the first truly staged opera in the festival’s history: L’Avare (Il vecchio avaro) by Francesco Gasparini, inspired by Molière, staged by Théophile Gasselin and conducted by Vincent Dumestre at the head of Le Poème Harmonique. The programme will bring together some of the major figures of today’s Baroque scene. Among the principal operatic events: Handel’s Ariodante performed by Les Talens Lyriques under Christophe Rousset; Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, entrusted to Le Banquet Céleste; and L’Olimpiade with the Orchestra Ghislieri conducted by Giulio Prandi. The festival will also welcome Vox Luminis in Bach’s Mass in B minor, Le Concert d’Astrée in Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and A nocte temporis in Rameau’s Les Boréades. Also noteworthy: an “Imaginary Requiem for Charles V” by La Tempête and Simon-Pierre Bestion, as well as a John Dowland programme — 2026 marking the 400th anniversary of his death — by Slovenian lutenist Bor Zuljan. Around the concerts, the festival continues to invent a truly Beaune experience: conversations with artists, musical visits, dinners in the Hospices, tastings and Baroque choral singing workshops.

Official website: www.festivalbeaune.com

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July 5-August 22 – Abbey Festival

Abbey Festival (Vosges-Lorraine)

© Festival des abbayes Vosges – Lorraine

“Quietude and Tumults”

From July 5 to August 22, 2026

In the heart of the Vosges, the Festival des Abbayes en Lorraine continues in 2026 a dialogue initiated in 2022 between monastic heritage and early music. Set within the majestic abbeys of Senones, Moyenmoutier, Étival, and Autrey, this now essential event in the Grand Est region transforms the Vosges valleys each summer into a genuine European musical itinerary. For the second consecutive year, the festival explores the theme “Beyond the Rhine: Quietude and Tumults.” Celts, Romans and peoples from the East spread across a territory that would slowly become France, the kingdom of the Franks and later the Capetians and their successors. In these lands marked by countless conflicts, Charlemagne attempted to restore order and rebuild the Roman Empire of his glorious predecessors, founded upon Christianity. With this second chapter, the 2026 festival evokes those moments that shaped both the joys and sorrows of France and Germany alike. Featured artists include Simon-Pierre Bestion’s company La Tempête; Les Traversées Baroques, and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur performing a Requiem by Ziani; Ensemble Agamemnon; Elsa Grether and David Lively; the wind quintet Le Concert impromptu; and Ensemble Les Lunaisiens.

Official website: www.festivaldesabbayeslorraine.com

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July 11-July 18 – Saintes Festival

Saintes Festival (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)

© Festival de Saintes 2026

“Emotionally Stirring”

From July 11 to 18, 2026

The Festival de Saintes is one of Europe’s great centres for historically informed performance, with a strong focus on Bach and sacred music. The 2026 edition offers a richly varied landscape, bringing together artists from several generations, from Philippe Herreweghe and Christophe Coin to very young and highly promising ensembles such as Trio Turbulences, Le Consort de Passage, Trio Sypniewski and Ensemble Irini. Established ensembles will also appear, from Insula Orchestra to Ensemble Amarillis with Patricia Petibon, from Correspondances to I Gemelli and La Tempête. While early and Baroque music largely dominates, the programme also makes room for Liszt and Schumann under the baton of Alice Julien-Laferrière with the Jeune Orchestre de l’Abbaye; for Beethoven, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe at the head of the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées; while Joseph Swensen and the Orchestre national de Bordeaux will bring to life the colours of music from Mussorgsky to Saint-Saëns and Ravel.

Official website: www.abbayeauxdames.org

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July 11-July 21 – Mont-Blanc Festival

Mont-Blanc Baroque Festival

View of Mont Blanc from Lake Chéserys © Explore Savoie

“Baroque Flavours”

From July 11 to July 21, 2026

In mid-July, the new edition of the Baroque Music Festival of the Mont-Blanc region, under the artistic direction of Franck-Emmanuel Comte, proposes a meeting place on the scale of Baroque Europe: from Spanish dances to Portuguese harmonies, from German fugues to Italian sonatas. Among the invited artists, La Capella de Ministrers presents the transition from the Renaissance to the Spanish Baroque, from 1500 to 1650. Cyril Auvity and the ensemble L’Assemblée will explore Nicolas Bernier’s cantata Le Café and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Coffee Cantata. L’Achéron invites audiences on a journey through the sonic treasures of the Portuguese diaspora, between sacred airs and secular songs. François Aria and Daphné Souvatzi, surrounded by musicians from both horizons, revisit Baroque airs by Charpentier, Rameau and Monteverdi in flamenco versions, alongside Hellenic songs from Greece, Cyprus and the Black Sea. Also on the programme: La Sportelle, Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu, and La Camera delle Lacrime.

Official website: www.festivalmontblanc.fr

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July 11-October 3 – The Thoronet Musicales

The Musicales of the Thoronet Abbey (Provence)

The chapter house of Thoronet Abbey © RandoJP

An extraordinary acoustic

From July 11 to October 3, 2026

The 5th edition of Les Musicales de l’Abbaye du Thoronet, in Provence, is set to confirm the emergence of one of the most unique events on the French early and sacred music scene. Held in the majestic 12th-century Cistercian abbey of Le Thoronet, the festival continues to develop around a simple idea: allowing music to resonate within one of Europe’s most extraordinary acoustic settings. Created in 2022 by the Centre des monuments nationaux, Les Musicales du Thoronet continue the legacy of the legendary Rencontres internationales de musique ancienne, which brought international renown to the site for nearly thirty years under the impetus of Dominique Vellard. Today, the festival embraces a broader openness, from Gregorian chant to contemporary creation, in a programme where heritage and sensory experience remain inseparable. Twelve concerts spread between the abbey church and the cloister shape the 2026 edition, including appearances by the British ensemble The Gesualdo Six, joined by trumpeter Matilda Lloyd; Ensemble Gilles Binchois; Marc Coppey performing Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello; the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles with Gwendoline Blondeel, Justin Taylor and Sophie de Bardonnèche; Robin Pharo’s ensemble Près de votre oreille; and, in closing, the Choir of Notre-Dame de Paris in a programme devoted to Charpentier, Campra, and Monteverdi.

Official website: www.le-thoronet.fr

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July 13-July 16 – Fontfroide Festival

Musique & History Fontfroide Festival (Occitanie)

Jordi Savall © Festival Musique & Histoire 2026

“Universal Harmony”

From July 13 to 16, 2026

For its 20th edition, the “Musique & Histoire” festival at Fontfroide Abbey, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, on the border between France and Spain, more than ever asserts itself as a unique project in Europe, driven by the humanist vision of Jordi Savall. Under the theme “Universal Harmony,” the 2026 edition explores the connections between cultures, eras, and musical traditions, in a constant dialogue between East and West. At the core of this programme, Savall reunites with his ensembles – Hespèrion XXI, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, and Le Concert des Nations – for concerts spanning centuries and civilizations. Highlights include Femmes d’Orient, featuring the musicians of Orpheus 21 led by Waed Bouhassoun; Le Nuove Musiche, centred on the Baroque revolution; and Istanbul 1700, an immersion in the Ottoman tradition. The 6 p.m. concerts offer ‘carte blanche’ performances by guest artists close to Savall – Tcha Limberger and Liana Gourdjia, Christophe Coin, Marc and Pierre Hantaï – while the major evening concerts in the abbey church unfold ambitious musical frescoes, from Monteverdi to Mozart. In the majestic setting of the Cistercian abbey, Fontfroide offers far more than a festival: an immersive experience where music, history and intercultural engagement come together to make early music a truly universal language.

Official website: www.fontfroide.com

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July 22-August 2 – Musical Promenades in the Pays d’Auge

Musical Promenades in the Pays d’Auge (Normandy)

The port of Honfleur in Normandy © Sites & paysages

“A Haven of Peace!”

From July 22 to August 2, 2026

Travel, rural life, heritage, diversity, and musical excellence define the Promenades musicales du Pays d’Auge, created in 1994 and led since 2023 by Sébastien Daucé and Céline Portes. Since then, these musical promenades have presented travelling concerts throughout the Pays d’Auge, in churches, castles, stud farms and factories, combining local heritage with a wide range of musical offerings, from early music to contemporary creation, alongside excursions into world music, jazz and chanson. The 2026 programme features Stile Antico, Correspondances, Apotropaïk, Le Poème Harmonique, Grain de la voix, Jean Rondeau, Ophélie Gaillard, Manon Papasergio, Gwendoline Blondeel and Mathilde Vialle on viola da gamba, as well as a poetic opera for very young children by Les Lunaisons.

Official website: www.pmpa.fr

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July 25-July 31 – Valloire Festival

Valloire Baroque Festival (Savoy)

The Sainte Marie-Madeleine chapel in Valloire © Alban Pernet

“Prima! La Donna”

From July 25 to 31, 2026

The Festival Valloire Baroque, in Savoie in the French Alps, presents a programme entitled “Prima! La Donna” celebrating women musicians as “heroines” in a highly prophetic setting. Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu, with Blandine de Sansal, will revive the operatic repertoire of a prima donna close to Vivaldi. But women do not only sing. They also host salons, as illustrated in England by La Rêveuse with Benjamin Perrot and Florence Bolton. They are also composers across Europe, as demonstrated by the ensemble Toccata e fuga and the Opéra Royal de Versailles, under the direction of Sophie de Bardonnèche and Justin Taylor, with the outstanding soloists appearing on those two evenings. Yet far from public life, they also excel within the intimate sphere, whose many dimensions are explored by Héloïse Gaillard’s ensemble Amarillis. A journey further back in time follows with the ensemble Contre le Temps, who takes audiences back to the medieval period with the question: “Where are the women?” – a wonderful title evoking Hildegard of Bingen, both composer and Doctor of the Church. And in this spiritual realm, as has been known since Antiquity, women are also prophetesses, as La Camera Chromatica sings in Roland de Lassus’s Prophecies of the Sibyls during the Renaissance.

Official website: www.festivalvalloirebaroque.com

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July 25-Augsut 2 – Saint-Donat Bach Festival

Saint-Donat Bach Festival (Drôme)

View of the Ussets hills, around Saint-Donat-sur-l’Herbasse © DE

Bach, lineages and metamorphoses

From July 25 to August 2, 2026

The oldest Bach festival in France, born in the wake of Franco-German reconciliation, the Saint-Donat festival, in the Drôme region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, is now entering a new phase. Driven by renewed governance and the artistic direction of Franck-Emmanuel Comte, it seeks to bring together musical excellence, historical heritage and a genuine commitment to local engagement. This 2026 edition aims to restore the festival’s national resonance while rebuilding strong ties with local residents and the surrounding area. While Bach remains the guiding star of the event, this year’s festival invites audiences to broaden their horizons and explore the lineages, transformations and resonances of a living legacy. With Tempêtes baroques, unleashed forces become music, theatre, and emotion, while sacred works by Monteverdi, Carissimi, and Charpentier plunge listeners into the heart of a fervent spirituality, where the human voice touches the universal. The festival also ventures beyond conventional boundaries, from the dialogue De Erik Satie à Queen to the crossovers of Baroque flamenco. Finally, this edition concludes under the sign of light with “Vivaldi, Divina Stella.” Featuring the Baroque ensembles of Nice and Montauban, Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu, Les Galants Caprices, the Concordances trio and Martin Wahlberg, as well as the Duo Lyra.

Official website: www.cmi-bach.com

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July 29-August 2 – Itinéraire Baroque

Itinéraire Baroque (Périgord)

© Itinéraire Baroque 2026

“Echoes of the Land”

From July 25 to August 2, 2026

A travelling festival at the heart of the Périgord heritage region in Aquitaine, Itinéraire Baroque continues its exploration of early repertoire this year again under the direction of Ton Koopman. Between concerts, staged productions and musicological discoveries, this edition creates a living dialogue between heritage, creation and territory. As a prelude, Ton Koopman will give an organ recital featuring two Bach works recently identified and performed for the first time in Leipzig in November 2025. Ensemble La Rêveuse will present the opening concert. With his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton Koopman will also conduct the closing concert on 2 August. Another highlight is a major day-long musical journey centred on the small commune of La Tour-Blanche-Cercles on July 31 2026, a true festive and musical itinerary running from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., combining concerts, lectures and convivial gatherings, featuring Iris Consort, Calamus Consort and Ensemble Harmonie du Roy.

Official website: www.itinerairebaroque.com

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July 29-August 13 – Tarentaise Baroque Festival

Tarentaise Baroque Festival (Alps)

View of La Grande Casse in Tarentaise © Gilles Lansard

“Between Earth and Sky”

From July 29 to August 13, 2026

At the beginning of August, the Festival Baroque de Tarentaise will celebrate its 35th edition across the valleys of Tarentaise and Beaufortain in Savoie. True to its traveling nature, the festival, directed by Jean-Luc Hyvoz, takes place in a dozen Baroque churches and chapels between Moûtiers, Conflans, Séez, Peisey-Nancroix, and Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise, transforming Savoyard Baroque heritage into an open-air musical stage. Under the theme “Between Earth and Sky, or Baroque Put to the Test of Time,” the 2026 edition continues this unique alliance between music, mountains and heritage. With Ensemble Alkymia presenting a programme combining villancicos and motets with the rhythms of traditional Peruvian dances, the festival offers nine Baroque concerts as well as more cross-disciplinary formats: dance concerts, balls, concert dinners and artistic projects connected to Alpine landscapes and the décor of Savoyard altarpieces.

Official website: www.festivaldetarentaise.com

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August 3-August 8 – Bach in Combrailles

Bach in Combrailles (Auvergne)

The organ of the church in Pontaumur © Bach en Combrailles 2026

“In the French Style”

From August 3 to 8, 2026

The 28th Festival Bach en Combrailles – now the leading French festival devoted to the exploration of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach – will take place at the beginning of August in the Combrailles region of Auvergne, around the towns of Pontaumur, Herment, and Miremont, and this year also Manzat and Crocq. No fewer than 23 events are announced: 5 Bach Cafés and 5 organ performances, 12 concerts and recitals, including 2 late-night performances, and 1 festival evening. Nach französischer Art (“in the French style”): borrowing an expression used by Bach himself, the theme of the 2026 festival examines the influence of the French style on the famous Cantor’s music. Not that he was the only composer of his time to be seduced by the spirit of Versailles, then regarded as a model throughout Europe, but because his long-distance engagement – he never left Germany – with French masters such as Couperin, Grigny, Lully, Marchand, Raison and many others led to numerous keyboard works, certain cantatas and the Brandenburg Concertos, whose complete cycle the festival begins over a two-year span. While continuing its longstanding collaborations with the ensembles Alia Mens and Le Banquet Céleste, the festival also invites promising young talents – harpsichordist Baptiste Guittet, organist Charlotte Dumas, and Ensemble Théodora – alongside established performers such as flautist Annie Laflamme and organists Benjamin Alard and Martin Gester, who recently recorded the Leipzig Chorales. For the first time, it will also welcome Ensemble Les Épopées, directed by Stéphane Fuget, for the closing concert.

Official website: www.bachencombrailles.com

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August 12-August 22 – Dieppe Festival

Dieppe-Normandy Early Music Festival

Dieppe © Teddy Verneuil

Bach in Normandy

From August 12 to 22, 2026

In mid-August, the Festival de musique ancienne Dieppe-Normandie will once again transform the Dieppe region into a centre for early music. Led by the Académie Bach d’Arques-la-Bataille, this singular event occupies a distinctive place in the French landscape: less media-driven than some of the major summer festivals, but deeply connected to its region, to the passing on of traditions and to the intimate relationship between historic architecture and living music. Since its founding in 1997 in Arques-la-Bataille, the Académie Bach has developed around Dieppe a project combining concerts, workshops, training and cultural activities. The festival thus takes over the Romanesque and Gothic churches of the Norman coast, the manor houses and heritage sites around Arques-la-Bataille, creating a musical connection between the countryside, the coast, and historical heritage. The 2026 programme remains faithful to the festival’s identity: a broad panorama ranging from the Renaissance to Romanticism on historical instruments, with a prominent place given to Johann Sebastian Bach, vocal polyphony and the German, French, and Italian Baroque traditions. Alongside the festival, the Académie Bach offers several workshops and summer academies aimed at amateurs as well as young professionals: German Baroque motets, choral singing, instrumental practice and workshops devoted to early musical theatre. This educational dimension remains one of the historical pillars of the Norman project.

Official website: www.academie-bach.fr

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August 15-August 26 – Rocamadour Festival

Rocamadour Festival (Occitanie)

© François Le Guen

“Dialogue of the Worlds”

From August 15 to 26, 2026

In mid-August, the Festival de Rocamadour will launch its 2026 edition under the theme “Dialogue of the Worlds,” at the heart of one of Europe’s most striking spiritual sites. Clinging to the cliffside, the sanctuary of Rocamadour offers a unique setting where sacred music regains its original dimension: that of an experience both aesthetic and meditative. Under the artistic direction of Emmeran Rollin, the 2026 edition seeks to bring together the great traditions of sacred music and contemporary creation, European roots and colours from elsewhere, the masterpieces of the heritage repertoire and their present-day reinterpretations. Among the anticipated highlights, in the Saint-Sauveur basilica and the Notre-Dame chapel, three events led by the resident ensemble La Sportelle will punctuate the festival: Cantus Missae with the Tenebrae Choir on 19 August; Bach’s Magnificat on 23 August; and Arvo Pärt’s Passio on 26 August 2026. Also noteworthy are a Misa Criolla with Alain Perez, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro singing, Thomas Enhco on piano and The Amazing Keystone Big Band; as well as Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu and Blandine de Sansal, Les Accents, Thibault Noally and Carlo Vistoli. Beyond the concerts, the festival also offers singing and organ academies, meetings with artists and moments of musical contemplation in the open air. The ascent towards the citadel, the evening lights over the Alzou Valley, and the echo of voices off the stone create a rare, almost timeless atmosphere.

Official webiste: www.rocamadourfestival.com

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August 18-August 30 – La Chaise-Dieu Festival

La Chaise-Dieu Festival (Auvergne)

© Festival de La Chaise-Dieu 2026

The 60th anniversary edition

From August 18 to 30, 2026

The Festival de La Chaise-Dieu is one of the major summer events held in the Gothic abbey church of La Chaise-Dieu, in the Haute-Loire department of Auvergne. Sacred and Baroque music occupy a central place there. In 2026, the festival celebrates its 60th anniversary and is thinking big, with thirteen days of festivities and no fewer than 35 concerts. Among them: Handel’s Dixit Dominus performed by Les Accents; Monteverdi’s Vespers by La Tempête; Campra’s Requiem by Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques; and Bach’s St John Passion by A nocte temporis and Reinoud Van Mechelen. Also noteworthy is the presence of Leonardo García-Alarcón and Cappella Mediterranea for two concerts: La Passione di Gesù, a work poised between Monteverdi’s polyphonic art, Bachian counterpoint and the sensuality of Piazzolla – composers who will also feature in a second concert, “Monteverdi-Piazzolla.”

Official website: www.chaise-dieu.com

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August 19-August 22 – Sablé Festival

Sablé Festival (Pays de la Loire)

© Festival de Sablé 2026

“As Close to the Stars as Possible”

From August 19 to 22, 2026

For its 48th edition, the Festival de Sablé, in the Pays de la Loire region, will once again take over the streets, churches and squares of Sablé-sur-Sarthe under the poetic theme “As Close to the Stars as Possible.” Founded in the late 1970s, just as the practice of performing on period instruments was emerging, the festival accompanied the rise of an entire generation of artists who have since become international references. The opening of the 2026 edition is entrusted to violinist Nemanja Radulović and his ensemble Double Sens in a “Vivaldi & Bach” programme, before tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen and Ensemble A nocte temporis revive the ‘airs sérieux’, drinking songs and dance tunes of the French Grand Siècle in “Oh, ma belle brunette.” Among the major highlights are the lute and archlute evening with Ensemble Jupiter and Thomas Dunford, the Louis Couperin recital by harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, Mariana Flores and Cappella Mediterranea with “Alfonsina,” as well as Ensemble Jacques Moderne. The festival will conclude with the “Madrigals for Ariadne” by the choir Aedes, in a programme combining Baroque music and contemporary creation. The festival also continues to embrace hybrid formats with the performance “Welcome” by the company Zutano BaZar, while Les Argonautes will present a sacred and theatrical Dixit Dominus in the church of Notre-Dame de Sablé. Free concerts, workshops, talks and participatory projects complete an event that remains deeply committed to the accessibility of the Baroque arts and to its connection with the local community.

Official website: www.lentracte-sable.fr

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August 20-August 23 – Musical Encounters of Vézelay

Musical Encounters of Vézelay (Burgundy)

© Festival de Vézelay

Inner Listening and Openness

From August 19 to 22, 2026

From 19 to 22 August, in the celebrated Basilica of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Vézelay — a major site of medieval pilgrimage and an important staging post on the routes to Santiago de Compostela — the Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay offer four days of wide-ranging musical discovery in a UNESCO World Heritage setting. This 26th edition calls for inner listening, openness and a measure of calm in a world in crisis. Among the guest artists, Il Caravaggio and Lucile Richardot bring together both celebrated and rarer pages by Vivaldi, including excerpts from Nerone fatto Cesare and Fra cieche tenebre from Arsilda, regina di Ponto. Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset set André Campra’s Requiem alongside Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Missa Assumpta est Maria. Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri offer a sonic pilgrimage in which Gregorian antiphons enter into dialogue with Palestrina, Antonio Lotti, Niccolò Jommelli and a new work by Davide Tramontano. Marking its 20th anniversary, Ensemble Aedes returns to the festival with a programme ranging from Brahms to Poulenc, and from Britten to Hersant, while Les Métaboles and the Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est, conducted by Léo Warynski, weave a path from Poulenc to Bernstein, via Arvo Pärt and Julia Wolfe. As the festival’s crowning moment, Gli Angeli Genève, under the direction of Stephan MacLeod, promise an intensely inhabited reading of Bach’s St John Passion. As every year, the festival days will be filled with music from morning to night, in the joyful and convivial atmosphere of Vézelay.

Official website: www.lacitedelavoix.net

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August 22-August 29 – In William Christie’s Gardens

In William Christie’s Gardens (Vendée)

View over the pond in William Christie’s gardens © Les Arts Florissants / Lionel Hug

Gardens and the music of the Grand Siècle

From August 22 to 29, 2026

During the third week of August, as every year, the festival “Dans les Jardins de William Christie” will return to the unique setting of Thiré in the Vendée. Conceived by William Christie around his home and gardens inspired by the French landscape art of the Grand Siècle, the festival, under the artistic direction of William Christie and Paul Agnew, has since 2012 combined concerts, musical walks and operatic performances in an atmosphere at once refined and deeply intimate. The 2026 edition will continue this unique alchemy between heritage, nature and music. This year it will devote significant attention to Jean-Philippe Rameau and Henry Purcell. Major concerts by the reflecting pool will thus bring together the choir and orchestra of Les Arts Florissants around suites and opera scenes by Rameau conducted by William Christie, while Paul Agnew will present a new staged and choreographed production of “Songs & Catches – Purcell at the Pub.” The emblematic candlelit concerts in the church of Saint-Juire-Champgillon will intertwine French sacred music and Baroque intimacy, featuring encounters between students of the Juilliard School and musicians of Les Arts Florissants around Georg Muffat, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and Arcangelo Corelli, as well as a recital devoted to Rameau’s works for violin and harpsichord with Théotime Langlois de Swarte with William Christie. Finally, the festival remains above all faithful to what defines its deepest identity: the musical promenades through groves and open-air theatres, the workshops, concerts at dusk and the spirit of the Jardin des Voix, the international academy founded by William Christie to support the next generation of Baroque singers.

Official website: www.arts-florissants.org

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September 11-September 27 – Ambronay Festival

Ambronay Festival (Ain)

Ambronay Abbey © Bertrand Pichène

“Baroque Latitudes”

From September 11 to 27, 2026

The Festival d’Ambronay, in the Ain department some forty kilometres from Lyon, is one of Europe’s major early music festivals, as well as a training and support centre for young ensembles. In 2026, under the theme “Baroque Latitudes,” the festival presents three weekends in the abbey church of Ambronay, whose exceptional acoustics remain one of its greatest assets. The first weekend (September 11 to 13) opens with an immersion into the Spanish Golden Age led by the company La Tempête and Simon-Pierre Bestion, in an “Imaginary Requiem around Charles V.” It continues with Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s Rosary Sonatas under the bow of Meret Lüthi, before a much-anticipated moment: William Christie conducting Les Arts Florissants in two operas by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, with the young soloists of the Jardin des Voix. The weekend concludes with Amandine Beyer and Gli Incogniti performing concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach. The second weekend (September 18 to 20), which is part of the European Heritage Days, explores the connections between Italy, Venice and Rome, with the young ensemble La Palatine on the one hand, and Irini, led by Lila Hajosi, on the other. Mezzo-soprano Eva Zaïcik reunites with Vincent Dumestre’s Le Poème Harmonique for a Venetian programme featuring Antonio Vivaldi, before a grand Roman finale with Leonardo García-Alarcón and Cappella Mediterranea around Gregorio Allegri and Alessandro Scarlatti. The third weekend (September 25 to 27), extends this traversal of styles with a French programme — Charpentier, Couperin, and Clérambault — performed by Ensemble Il Caravaggio and Camille Delaforge; a concert centred on the Seasons of Antonio Vivaldi and Giovanni Guido by The Ministers of Pastime; followed by a new interpretation of Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers by InAlto. The edition concludes with Jordi Savall, Hespèrion XXI, and La Capella Reial de Catalunya with the legendary Red Book of Montserrat. As every year, numerous activities will also be offered at the Espace Festivaliers for all audiences: workshops, listening guides, visits, amateur stages and post-concert discussions.

Official website: www.ambronay.org

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September 13-October 4 – Via Aeterna

Via Aeterna Festival (Normandy)

Mont-Saint-Michel © Festival Via Aeterna

Music at Mont-Saint-Michel

From September 13 to October 4, 2026

In mid-September, the Via Aeterna festival will once again make Mont-Saint-Michel a major centre of European sacred and Baroque music by spreading its concerts across the thousand-year-old abbey, the churches of the bay and several Norman heritage sites, in an atmosphere where spirituality, heritage and music are in constant dialogue. Baroque programming will occupy a particularly important place this year. Featured artists include baritone Romain Bockler and the ensemble Les Surprises led by Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas in “Bach en famille”; guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre in a programme “from Bach to Piazzolla”; Sébastien Daucé’s ensemble Correspondances in Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Une couronne de roses; Bach motets performed by Julie Depardieu and Thomas Ospital with the ensemble Dulci Jubilo, among others. As the culminating event, the closing concert will be entrusted to mezzo-soprano Eva Zaïcik and Le Poème Harmonique in Antonio Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus. Beyond the concerts, Via Aeterna remains true to its singular identity: transforming Mont-Saint-Michel into a musical pilgrimage where the great sacred works resonate between tides, Gothic stone, and monastic silence.

Official website: www.via-aeterna.musiquesetfestivals.com

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September 25-December 12 – Pontoise Baroque Festival

Pontoise Baroque Festival (Ile-de-France)

© Festival de Pontoise

“What If We Sang?”

From September 25 to December 12, 2026

For its 41st edition, the Festival Baroque de Pontoise returns to its two-part structure, conceived like a theatrical season: Act I from September to November, followed by Act II in the first half of 2027. This first chapter will be devoted to the voice, the central theme of a season entitled “What If We Sang?” The festival opens on September 25 at the church of Notre-Dame de Pontoise with Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI in “The Art of Variation.” This is followed by harpsichordist Bertrand Cuiller in “Songbook” in Cergy (September 27), then Bach cantatas performed by Le Banquet Céleste at Saint-Maclou Cathedral in Pontoise on October 2. The festival also welcomes the great Italian specialist Rinaldo Alessandrini for a programme devoted to Monteverdi madrigals on October 3, while the ensemble Irini takes over Royaumont Abbey with “Post Tenebrae” on October 4. The second half of October will bring a blend of creations and traditions: Laura Perrudin will present Tempus at Royaumont (October 10), Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien will make “Les Voix humaines” resonate in Pontoise (October 11), followed by Constance Luzzati and Fanny Vicens exploring “Affetti Cantabile” at the Conservatoire de Cergy. Finally, countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and the ensemble Artaserse will be the festival’s prestigious guests with “Il Mio Vivaldi” on October 16 at the church of Notre-Dame de Pontoise.

Official website: www.festivalbaroque-pontoise.fr

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