Paris has an extensive and vibrant theater scene. On any given evening, dozens of plays take to the stage, from productions of classics or contemporary works in national public theaters to comedies and one-man/woman shows in small private theaters, with much drama and many laughs in between.

Among them, there will likely be a play directed by, written by and/or starring Jean-Philippe Daguerre, one of the most recognizable names in Paris theater life, whom I’ve interviewed in the video further below.

Yet theater is the one major aspect of cultural life in Paris that foreign visitors rarely experience. Why’s that? Language, of course, but is that necessarily a barrier?

Theater with English surtitles

Some theaters have made efforts to attract foreign visitors, particularly English-speakers. Surtitling glasses are available at the Comédie Française; the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe presents English surtitles (and some plays are performed in English); productions at the Théâtre Edouard VII and the Théâtre Le Ranelagh may also have English surtitles; there are several stand-up acts in English, and then there’s theater, enjoyable whether in English or in French.

Anyway, the emotions of the theater don’t come from words alone. The acting, directing and phrasing can be appreciated, felt, even apprehended without comprehending individual words. Think of Shakespeare in our own language, sort of; we sense Hamlet’s internal drama as he questions to be or not to be when speaking of “The insolence of office, and the spurns/That patient merit of th’unworthy takes/When he himself might his Quietus make/With a bare Bodkin? Who would Fardels bear…” while understanding nary a word. How different can it be with Molière?

But give a try in French

Even without understanding French, spending 60 to 90 minutes in a small theater—and there are many—makes for an inexpensive cultural treat for the sheer pleasure of being seated within spitting distance of the actors on stage. Tickets can be had for under 30 euros. And if you do know some French, attending a comedy in a small theater is a terrific way of challenging yourself to grasp a story line without understanding every word. Servers in restaurants and staff in hotels will switch to English at your first “bonjour,” but actors won’t. Besides, the inevitably joyfully silly set-up will be clear within five minutes. Tickets aren’t too difficult to come by, including half-price same-day tickets.

Interview with Jean-Philippe Daguerre

As further encouragement to consider going to the theater in Paris, watch my interview below with Jean-Philippe Daguerre. Daguerre is a prominent figure in French theater life, winner of multiple Molière Awards for acting, directing and writing. The Molières are Paris’s equivalent of the Tony Awards in New York or the Olivier Awards in London. Daguerre and his work have also appeared on stages in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Two of the plays that he’s penned are currently showing in Paris: Du Charbon dans les Veines (at Théâtre du Palais Royal until June 28 then reopening at Théâtre Saint-Georges on Sept. 15) and La Femme qui n’aimait pas Rabbi Jacob (at Théâtre Montparnasse).

Give a listen as Daguerre discusses the differences between acting in Paris, London and New York, France’s developing musical comedy culture, the interest of Paris theater for English-speaking visitors, and The Woman Who Ddn’t Like Rabbi Jacob, his latest work as a playwright.

This interview took place during the Salon de Spectacle Vivant, a fair for the performing arts of which Jean-Philippe Daguerre was the guest of honor, on February 2, 2026. The biannual fair is organized by Charlotte Calmel (ChaComDif) and Laurence Trinquet (CultureLLes).

(c) 2026, Gary Lee Kraut. All rights reserved.

Watch more France Revisited interviews along with other videos on the France Revisited Youtube channel.

The post Paris Theater Life: Actor, Director, Writer Jean-Philippe Daguerre appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

***

Before asking yourself whether you want to be, or not to be, in Moulins, you’ll quite naturally ask yourself, as I once did, “O Moulins, Moulins, wherefore art thou Moulins.” For Moulins is an unlikely destination in the hinterlands of France that’s difficult to situate on the map. Being told that the towns of Bourges, Vichy, Nevers, Autun and Montluçon are within a radius of 60 miles only vaguely helps.

Ah, there you are, Moulins. Come, let’s away.

The thought of taking the train 2.5 hours from Paris to visit a museum dedicated to theatrical costumes did little in itself to get my travel juices flowing. Yet, accustomed to following the rails southeast and southwest from Paris, it felt strangely venturesome to ride due south beyond the Loire. I say there is no darkness but ignorance. Actually Shakespeare said that. But I was ignorant of Moulins, capital of the department of Allier and of the former duchy of the Bourbon family known as Le Bourbonnais. So I took this trip as a challenge to discover something new for myself while exploring an unheralded region.

Moulins has since 2006 been home to the National Costume Center, Centre National du Costume de Scène or CNCS. In the world of theater, the CNCS is unique in its devotion to preserving, studying and exhibiting exceptional and histsorical theater costumes and elements of theater sets. Much of the collection comes from three founding institutions, the Comédie Française, the National Library (BNF) and the National Opera of Paris. The center also receives donations from costume designers, theaters, acting companies and artists and their heirs. Its vast collection of 10,000 costumes and another 10,000 articles largely remains in the on-site reserves. Choice items are then brought out thematically for evocative, even dramatic, temporary exhibits mounted twice yearly.

In 2014 the CNCS honors the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth with the exhibition Shakespeare, l’étoffe du monde (the fabric of the world), presenting costumes, mostly from French productions over the past century, of some of the bard’s most emblematic plays.

The exhibition begins by introducing visitors to the world of Elizabethan theater, then displays in a dozen rooms the diversity of Shakespeare’s world through the costumes of kings, queens, soldiers, jesters, witches, cross-dressing actors and assorted ghosts and spirits. The exhibition runs through Jan. 4, 2015.

Information about this and upcoming exhibitions can be found here.

O, had I but followed the arts!

It’s rare for France’s Ministry of Culture to allow a national collection to stray far from Paris, but the relative obscurity of theater costumes and the knowledge that the conservation of the vast collection required significant space, led to its removal from the capital region. For Moulins, a service town with a population of 27,000, 40,000 with the suburbs, the center’s creation here in 2006 was a coup that placed it on the cultural radar of the map of France.

Moulins is capital of the department of Allier and of the former duchy of the Bourbon family but had no particular historical relationship with theatrical costumes, unless one counts the uniforms of the cavalrymen who occupied the exhibition building when originally built as barracks in the late 18th century. The architect Jacques Denis Antoine (1733-1801) also designed the old mint (Hôtel des Monnaies) in Paris near Pont Neuf on the left bank of the Seine.

The CNCS is a 20-minute walk from the center of Moulins, on the left bank of the Allier, past the terns nesting along the river from April to early August. (The name Moulins refers to the mills that were once here.) On the approach the building appears rather sparse and uninviting. But the CNCS is appropriately theatrical in the presentation of its exhibitions, and there’s a nice airy brasserie inside.

While much of the CNCS’s public space is dedicated to its temporary exhibitions, the center also presents a permanent exhibition of the Noureev (Nureyev) Collection. That exhibition displays artifacts from the life and career of Rudolf Noureev (Nureyev) (1938-1989) the danceur étoile who, in the 1980s, danced with the Paris Opera Ballet and became its director (1983-1989).

In addition to its exhibitions, the CNCS is an important resource center open to stage professionals, researchers and the general public.

Shall I compare thee, Moulins, to a summer’s day?

Perhaps not, but the sun needn’t be at its peak for the curious traveler to visit a lesser-known region such as Moulins and its surrounding.

* * *

The building blocks for making a day or more of Moulins and the surrounding area of Le Bourbonnais include the following:

National Center for Theatrical Costumes and Scenography, Centre National du Costume de Scène. Tel. 04 70 20 76 20. Open daily 10am-6pm (until 6:30pm in July and Aug.). Closed Dec. 25 and Jan. 1. Tickets: 6€ for entrance to both the temporary and permanent exhibitions. Free for children under 12. For several weeks between exhibitions only the permanent collection is visible.

Moulins Tourist Office. 11 rue François Péron. Tel. 04 70 44 14 14

Choice café: Le Grand Café, 49 Place Allier. Tel. 04 70 44 00 05. An Art Nouveau café-brasserie whose 1899 décor is listed as a historical monument. Open Mon.-Sat. 8am-11pm.

Choice restaurants:
– Le Grand Café (see above)
– Le 9/7, 97 rue d’Allier. Tel. 04 70 35 01 60. Olivier Mazuelle serves fresh market fare in the center of town. Closed Sat. lunch, Sun., Mon. dinner.
– Le Trait d’Union, 16 rue Gambetta. Tel. 04 70 34 24 61. Trait d’union, meaning hyphen, refers to the link that chef Vincent Hoareau seeks to create a link between classicism with modernity. Closed Sun., Mon.
– Hôtel de Paris (see below).

Choice hotel: Hotel de Paris, 23 rue de Paris. Tel. 04 70 44 00 58. A 4-star hotel with 32 rooms and suites, AC, spa, gastronomic restaurant (opening Sept. 2014), brasserie. Member of Chateaux & Hotels Collection.

Others sight in Moulins:
– Maison Mantin (Mantin Mansion). The home of an upper-class resident (a bourgeois) of the late 19th-century left more or less as it was and according to his will.
– The flamboyant Gothic Notre-Dame Cathedral of Moulins and its late 15th-century/early 16th-century triptych of the Virgin of the Apocalypse.
– Le Jacquemart, a15th-century belfry.

Near Moulins:

– Souvigny and its Romanesque abbey church containing the tombs of the Dukes of Bourbon.
– Saint Menoux Church, another beautiful Romanesque church, and its legend that sticking ones head in the hole of the saint’s tomb will render the simple-minded more intelligent.
– Bourbon-l’Archambault, an old spa town containing ruins of a fortified castle.
– Vineyards of Saint-Pourçain, a little-known appellation using Gamay and Pinot Noir for the reds and rosés and Chardonnay, Sauvignon and Tressallier (a local grape) for the whites.

See this companion article about sights, food and drink in Moulins and the surrounding region: Tasted, Tested in Allier.

© 2014, Gary Lee Kraut

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