Events and festivals in Normandy on September 19-20, 2026: Normandy Impressionist closes six months of exhibitions in Giverny and Vernon, between a medieval market in Merville-Franceville and Notre-Dame's bell foundry in Villedieu-les-Poêles.
Third weekend of September across Normandy. European Heritage Days bring together all five Norman departments on September 19-20, 2026, just as two summer-long exhibitions close their doors in Giverny and Le Havre. Events and festivals follow one another in Normandy this weekend (19-20/09): Normandy Impressionist closes six months of exhibitions in Giverny and Vernon, between a medieval market in Merville-Franceville and Notre-Dame's bell foundry in Villedieu-les-Poêles.
Giverny Closes Its Impressionist Season
Normandy Impressionist, the region's major art festival held every three to four years since 2010, spreads across the Eure between Giverny and Vernon. Its Eure chapter runs for six months, from March 20 to September 20, 2026.
Exhibitions, contemporary art, photography and live performances have followed one another since spring, in a deliberate dialogue between 19th-century pictorial heritage and today's creation. The Eure explores Impressionism in every form, from painting to photography and contemporary creation. Claude Monet's house in Giverny, and the banks of the Seine in Vernon, have carried this edition through the summer.
This weekend marks its final stretch. By Sunday evening, the rooms fall silent until the next edition, three to four years from now.
No other event this weekend closes a programme running this long. Six months separate March's opening from Sunday's closing, between Giverny and the Seine valley.
The Rest of the Weekend in Normandy
In Le Havre, two events overlap. Un Été au Havre also closes its open-air contemporary art season on Sunday, launched in late June for the city's 500th anniversary, with monumental installations, artworks and performances across the streets, squares and beaches. The Béton festival mixes electronic music, rap, DJ sets and talks around the discovery of Perret heritage, across the Saint-Joseph church, the Bains des Docks and the Halle aux Poissons.
Two heritage events take place further west. In Villedieu-les-Poêles, labelled Ville et Métiers d'Art, European Heritage Days open the doors of the Cornille Havard foundry, which cast the bells of Notre-Dame de Paris. Near Falaise, the Festival Falesia, created in 2024, sets up theatre, a young-audience show, classical concerts and readings inside the Cistercian abbey of Villers-Canivet.
On the food side, two Norman festivities answer each other. In Ver, the Bread Oven Festival revives the restored bread oven of La Foulerie farm: a farmer-baker leads a sourdough workshop, followed by a show. In Neufchâtel-en-Bray, the cheese festival gathers producers and guilds around the heart-shaped cheese since 1995, with parades and a large producers' market.
Two more unusual events round out the weekend. In the Orne, Buenos Aires en Perche brings Argentine maestros to the Espace Octave Mirbeau in Rémalard en Perche for tango workshops and milonga balls, an event running since 2019. In Merville-Franceville-Plage, Cidre & Dragon turns the seaside town into "Merravilla", a fantasy city of elves and goblins, complete with a medieval market, a cosplay contest and live-action role play.