Events and festivals in Île-de-France, 3-4 October 2026: the Brie cheese fair in Melun draws around 15,000 visitors, alongside circus in Domont, jazz in Fontenay-sous-Bois and Versailles musical fountains.
Saturday morning, in the pedestrian streets of Melun's old town. The town hosts this weekend, on October 3, the Brie cheese fair of Melun, organised for more than twenty years by the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Brie de Melun on the first Saturday of October, on Place Saint-Jean. Events and festivals in Île-de-France, 3-4 October 2026: the Brie cheese fair in Melun draws around 15,000 visitors, alongside circus in Domont, jazz in Fontenay-sous-Bois and Versailles musical fountains.
The Brie fair of Melun
The Brie fair of Melun takes place this Saturday, October 3, 2026, in the pedestrian streets of Melun's old town (77000), in Seine-et-Marne. The event returns to the same spot every year.
This annual food fair is entirely devoted to Brie de Melun, a cheese under protected designation of origin, known in France as AOP. Producers and food artisans from across France travel to Seine-et-Marne to take part. They set up between 100 and 110 stalls, depending on the year.
Entry stays free across the whole event, a popular gathering throughout Seine-et-Marne. Cheese, cured meats and local produce fill the stalls of the old town.
The pedestrian streets of Melun's old town turn, for one Saturday each October, into a vast food market.
The rest of the weekend
In Montfort-l'Amaury, the Journées Ravel open two to three weekends of concerts devoted to composer Maurice Ravel this weekend, with around twenty performances in outstanding heritage sites, both public and private, such as the Château de Breteuil, near the Rambouillet forest. The festival began in 1996. In Versailles, the Grandes Eaux Musicales animate the château gardens, designed by Le Nôtre, every weekend from April to November, to the sound of baroque music by Lully, Rameau, Charpentier and Gluck, a tradition begun by Louis XIV in the 1660s. In Poissy and six partner towns, including Achères and Houilles, L'Estival continues its French-language song programme, mixing established headliners and emerging artists. It was born in 1988.
In Fontenay-sous-Bois, the Pégazz Festival closes on 04/10/2026 its gathering of contemporary jazz, improvised music, visual arts and cine-concerts, spread between La Fonderie and the Espace culturel Gérard Philipe. It was born in 2020. Run by the Pégazz & l'Hélicon collective, it adds masterclasses at the Théâtre Jean-François Voguet and the Salle Jacques Brel. Across more than twenty towns of Val-de-Marne, the Festival de Marne continues three weeks of French-language song, jazz, rap and world music, created in 1987 by singer Jean Ferrat and the Val-de-Marne county council.
Under a big top at the Parc des Coquelicots, the Val-d'Oise International Circus Festival brings artists from around the world to Domont for three days of equestrian arts, aerial acrobatics, juggling, balance and comic acts. It has run since 2000. In Fontenay-sous-Bois too, the FLASH exhibition presents, at the Halle Roublot, a body of social and civic photography, inside a former market hall. It was founded in 2024 by Émilie Chazelle and Margaux Hannart. Run by the Nouvelles Scènes association, it brings together artists, residents and educational and social organisations.
On the Saclay plateau, the Fête de la Science in Essonne opens its Village des Sciences, with more than 70 stands, workshops and talks run by Université Paris-Saclay, ENS Paris-Saclay and the Inria research institute. Essonne's own research labs open their doors too, in a free event open to all. In Yerres, the Caillebotte estate extends into early October its exhibition on Impressionist art, in the park that inspired painter Gustave Caillebotte. Listed as a historic monument, it also offers open-air painting workshops, guided tours and concerts.
The Festival de Marne continues through October 17 across Val-de-Marne.