Watch now: inside the monumental restoration of the Grand Palais

The Grand Palais has undergone the most important restoration phase in its history. For nearly four years, director Stefan Cornic followed this exceptional worksite alongside workers, journeymen, teams from the GrandPalaisRmn and the Chatillon architectes agency. His documentary, Les métamorphoses du Grand Palais, recounts this spectacular transformation while summoning up the fascinating history of this iconic monument since the 1900 Universal Exhibition.

The film highlights the technical gestures, architectural challenges and expertise involved: volumes revealed by the demolitions, pouring of the Nave's new slab, restoration of the roof sculptures, carving of Comblanchien stone steps, lighting tests under the glass roof... A choral account at close quarters with the teams, which captures the building's spectacular relationships of scale and highlights an extraordinary restoration made possible thanks to the financial support of the French State and the exceptional patronage of the House of Chanel.

In dialogue with the building site's adventure, the archives span more than a century of metamorphoses. Exhibitions, salons, festivals, scientific or military transformations, the Olympic Games and even a giant ice rink: the film bears witness to a Grand Palais that is always on the move, out of the ordinary, capable of reinventing itself in every era to span the centuries!

To be seen in replay on France.tv until January 23, 2026 (65 minutes).