Every book fair and literary festival worth a trip, with the dates that are already official and the ones that are not yet. Each page links to the official website and can be added to your calendar.
Updated: September 2026 · 6 fairs · Only dates verified against official sources
Sorted by date. Dates come from the official website or the organising body.
Nancy · 11–13 Sept 2026
Nantes · 29 Oct – 1 Nov 2026
Brive-la-Gaillarde · 6–8 Nov 2026
Montreuil · 25–30 Nov 2026
Lyon · 2–4 Apr 2027
Paris · 16–18 Apr 2027
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Start for freeFrance has a highly specialised literary calendar: rather than one general fair that dwarfs everything else, each event owns its territory. Quais du Polar in Lyon belongs to crime fiction, Les Utopiales in Nantes to science fiction, and the Salon du livre et de la presse jeunesse in Montreuil is Europe's largest children's literature event.
The Festival du Livre de Paris, successor to Livre Paris, remains the big general gathering of the spring; it left Versailles for the Grand Palais and tightened to three days. Outside Paris, Le Livre sur la Place in Nancy opens the autumn publishing season in September and the Foire du livre de Brive closes it in November.
This page is updated whenever organisers publish new dates. If a fair shows as "dates not yet announced", it is because the date is not officially confirmed, not because it will not take place.
The Festival du Livre de Paris, at the Grand Palais, is the largest general fair. For children's literature it is the Montreuil salon, with over 400 exhibitors.
It depends. Montreuil and the Foire du livre de Brive are free, and the great majority of Quais du Polar events are too. Les Utopiales is ticketed. Always check the fair's official website.
All year. The September publishing season opens in Nancy, autumn runs through Utopiales, Brive and Montreuil, and spring brings Quais du Polar and the Festival du Livre de Paris.