Café des idées

Justice et éthique avec Christiane Taubira - Café des idées 2024 © Christophe Raynaud de Lage / Festival d'Avignon

From July 05 to July 26 at the Saint-Louis Cloister
Free admission - Coffee and light refreshments are available.

The Café des idées is a venue where leading figures in the fields of literature, the performing arts, and research come daily to discuss and exchange ideas. Debates, conferences, workshops, and broadcasts constantly enliven this place which embodies the spirit of the Festival d’Avignon: a space of sharing and discovery, open to all.

Debates and meetings

A few meetings from the Café des idées:

  • La matinale du Festival d'Avignon, a regular event inviting the artists behind the Festival to answer Zineb Soulaimani's questions about the shows on the program.

  • Making Waves Avignon: a radio program that gives young people the microphones, hosted live by young people from Bobigny, Noisy-le-Sec, Avignon and Annecy, accompanied by the Making Waves team.

  • Les Midis de la culture with France Culture: united by their shared love of art and creation, artists, journalists and researchers discuss the latest cultural news.

  • « How I lost my tongue » with Nabil Wakim

  • The Resistance Tour: a discussion with representatives of major institutions from Europe and the Middle East on artistic freedom and solidarity against political interference, as part of the RESISTANCE NOW TOGETHER movement led by Milo Rau.

  • Conversation with Elias Sanbar

  • Conversation with Leïla Slimani

  • Justice under scrutiny with Lorraine de Sagazan and Arié Alimi

  • Wanting to start again with Georges Didi-Huberman and João Figueira

  • And other meetings and debates with numerous partners...

Discover the whole Café des idées program

The Avignon Festival Bookshop

Books by Café des idées participants are available directly from the courtyard of the Saint-Louis cloister, where a "flying bookshop" has been set up. Otherwise, the entire bookshop is housed in the Maison Jean Vilar, a spacious, calm and temperate setting, offering an exceptional choice of over 3,000 references dedicated to the shows and debates that animate Avignon. The collection of plays and essays on theater is extended to dance, circus, puppetry and the performing arts as a whole.

The gence française de développement helps advance France’s policy on sustainable investment and international solidarity. It finances, supports and drives the transition to a fairer, more resilient world. 
Our teams are working on over 2,700 projects in the field, in over 115 countries, including France’s overseas departments and territories, to support projects for the climate, biodiversity, peace, gender equality and global health. Working by your side, toward a world in common. 
AFD and the Festival d'Avignon are involved in a partnership to strengthen the international and sustainable dimension of the festival. It is a matter of supporting the Café des idées, a place for debates and thought open to all audiences, to propose a meeting on international cooperation between cultural actors, and to discuss with Making Waves the mobilization of young people on major global issues.