Carré d'Art at Nimes visitor guide

Visit Carré d'Art at Nimes, France

The Carré d'Art Museum is a modern building containing a library and a contemporary art museum in the centre of Nimes, in Occitanie.

Discover the Carré d'Art at Nimes

France This Way review: the Carré d'Art is an interesting modern building that also contains an impressive museum of contemporary art - you should enter to admire the building even if you are not interested in the artworks.

The Carré d'Art is a contemporary building designed by the architect Norman Foster, built on the same square as the Roman temple called Maison Carrée in the centre of Nimes in 1993.

The building stands in dramatic contrast to the structure that stood in this location before, which was a large neo-classical theatre built around 1800 but which burned down in the 1950's. Rather than take the obvious approach of restoring or rebuilding in the classical style, which was the obvious approach for a building so close to the magnificent temple, the town decided to take the opposite approach and build something very contemporary.

Apparently there was quite a lot of debate as to whether the new building should incorporate the classical style columns from the previous theatre in the new building. At the end of the day it was decided this was not the best idea, and these have been located to a service area on a nearby motorway.

The resulting structure is this large cube, largely built in glass and steel, with a substantial overhang providing shade. This is now used as a meeting place, library and art museum. It provides an imposing contrast to the temple - in a good way!

The square was flooded in the late 1980s and as a result was also redesigned by Norman Foster, with the biggest change that most of the the square is now pedestrian only.

You can visit the interior of the Carré d'Art without paying. Inside you will find a large open space with glass staircases and bare concrete ceilings and several areas dedicated to temporary art exhibitions. Your visit won't take long but you should certainly enter to take a look if you are in the town.

On the upper level there is a substantial museum of contemporary art, although you have to pay to enter. The works are by relatively unknown artists, and will be interesting to you if you follow trends in very modern art, perhaps less so otherwise.

On the top of the building there is a cafe / restaurant and terrace called "Le Ciel de Nimes". This has some of the best views of the Maison Carrée temple, which is only a few metres away, and of the rooftops of Nimes. If you plan to eat in the restaurant in the busy season you should reserve a table in advance.

Attractions nearby

Of course you will want to see the Maison Carrée and the amphitheatre while you are in Nimes - see the Nimes guide for more information about these and other attractions in and around the town.

You can find more travel ideas in the Gard guide and the Languedoc-Roussillon guide.

To make travel arrangements to visit Carré d'Art at Nimes see HERE