The American Season

Two exhibitions spanning two and a half centuries of Franco-American friendship

On the pillars of the Cour d’Honneur, an open-air exhibition presents portraits of sixteen French and American figures who forged this bond, from Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte and Georges Clemenceau to Alexander Calder and Josephine Baker.

In the Valenciennes corridor, a second exhibition brings together some thirty objects from the museum’s collections – military insignia, ceremonial sabres, decorations that belonged to Marshals Joffre and Foch, the sword of the Marquis de La Fayette – bearing witness to the strong bond between the two nations since the American Revolution.

In 1777, a young French officer, the Marquis de La Fayette, landed in South Carolina to join the American insurgents. Two centuries later, in 2009, a brigade of French forces would still bear his name, the “Task Force Lafayette,” a sign of his lasting place in French military history.

Curators – “Figures of Franco-American Friendship”:
François Lagrange, head of the research, promotion and outreach department, and Christophe Pommier, deputy curator of the Artillery department

Curators – “From the Marquis to the Lafayette Task Force”:
Dominique Prévôt, head of the edged weapons collections in the Ancien Régime department, and Emmanuel Ranvoisy, deputy head of the contemporary department, in charge of the film programme

In conjunction with the American Season

The programme continues after the summer with a film series, a set of talks, and a new season of the Invalides music programme devoted to American music since the eighteenth century, marking the first time jazz enters the line-up.

“The American Season”
From 1 July to 30 November 2026

Musée de l’Armée
129 rue de Grenelle & 2 place Vauban, 75007 Paris, France