A Twenty-Year Anniversary · July 23–31, 2026
Art
Vincent van Gogh
What to look for
The tilted floor and the pairs of everything — two chairs, two pillows, two portraits. Van Gogh painted this room three times; this is the middle version.
Why it matters
Painted from memory in a Saint-Rémy asylum. It is Van Gogh's idea of home.
Vincent van Gogh
What to look for
The gaslights doubled as reflections and the little couple walking arm-in-arm on the near bank.
Why it matters
The quieter, earlier cousin to MoMA's Starry Night — painted a year before, on a real riverbank in Arles.
Vincent van Gogh
What to look for
The path splits around the church — a woman walks the left fork. The sky has no sun and no clouds, just cobalt.
Why it matters
Painted weeks before his death. The church still stands, almost identical.
Vincent van Gogh
What to look for
The foxglove in his hand — a heart medicine that also caused the yellow-tinged vision Van Gogh had.
Why it matters
Gachet was Van Gogh's doctor in his final weeks. Van Gogh said he looked 'heartbroken.'
Vincent van Gogh
What to look for
The swirling turquoise background pattern that seems to move against him. The steady, exhausted eyes.
Why it matters
Painted in Saint-Rémy just after a breakdown. He kept it for his mother.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
What to look for
The dappled light through the trees onto dancers' faces — Renoir's whole reputation is in this brushwork.
Why it matters
The definitive image of Sunday afternoon in Montmartre when the Impressionists were still young.
Claude Monet
What to look for
Hung together, they look like the same building at different hours. Stand back, then step close to see the paint is almost sculpted.
Why it matters
Monet rented a room across from the cathedral and painted more than 30 versions. This is what obsession looks like on canvas.
Édouard Manet
What to look for
Her hand — placed, not covering. The black cat at her feet. The maid's bouquet nobody looks at.
Why it matters
The scandal that started modern art. She looks straight at you, and she is not ashamed.
Leonardo da Vinci
What to look for
The landscape behind her — two different horizon levels. And the sfumato around her eyes, softer than a photograph.
Why it matters
Leonardo carried it with him for the last 16 years of his life and never delivered it to the patron.
Unknown Greek sculptor
What to look for
The wet drapery — you can feel the sea wind. She was found in 118 pieces on a Greek island in 1863.
Why it matters
She stands at the top of the Daru staircase because there is no better place in the world to stand.
Attributed to Alexandros of Antioch
What to look for
The impossible twist — her hips face one way, her shoulders another. The arms are missing but the balance is intact.
Why it matters
Found on the Aegean island of Milos in 1820 by a farmer, sold to the French.
Jacques-Louis David
What to look for
Napoleon crowning Josephine, not himself. The Pope watches with hands folded. David painted himself into the balcony.
Why it matters
The most political painting in France. Every face is a portrait of a real person.
Marc Chagall
What to look for
The floating Abraham and the deep, deep blue. Three windows in the axial chapel, best in the late morning.
Why it matters
Chagall was 87 when he finished them. He wanted them to feel weightless.
Kiki Smith
What to look for
The animals — deer, birds, hares — moving through Gothic Reims. Warmer palette than Chagall.
Why it matters
The first American to place stained glass in the cathedral. It felt like a homecoming for Reims.
Unknown Gothic sculptor
What to look for
On the north portal, exterior — the second figure from the left. She actually smiles. Very few Gothic figures do.
Why it matters
Her head was shattered by a German shell in 1914 and painstakingly reassembled. She is the symbol of Reims.
13th-century masters
What to look for
56 kings of France above the rose window. Each figure is over four meters tall.
Why it matters
This is where every French king was crowned for 1,000 years. Each of them stared up at this facade.
13th-century masters
What to look for
1,113 biblical scenes. Start at the Genesis window on the west and follow it clockwise.
Why it matters
Louis IX built the whole chapel in six years as a reliquary for the Crown of Thorns. The glass has survived for 780 years.
Restoration led by Philippe Villeneuve
What to look for
The stone is now the color it was in 1345 — cream, not soot-black. The scale reads completely differently.
Why it matters
5,000 people worked for 5 years. Every carved capital was cleaned by hand.
13th-century masters
What to look for
The North Rose (still 80% original 13th-century glass) is the miracle. Sit under it in the transept.
Why it matters
All three roses survived the 2019 fire intact — even the fire chief called it a miracle.
Gothic masons · 13th–15th century
What to look for
The flying buttresses close-up (only visible from tower level), the exterior of the Chagall rose window, and the panoramic view south over Reims toward the Champagne vineyards.
Why it matters
Standing at the top of the coronation cathedral of French kings, you look out at the same landscape the kings would have seen leaving Reims after their coronation. And in a moment, you’ll descend and drive 3 km south to drink champagne with 300 years of Ruinart history below your feet.
Disney Imagineers
What to look for
Upstairs: stained-glass panels tell the story. Downstairs in the dungeon: the animatronic dragon.
Why it matters
The only Disney castle with a walk-through gallery — a nod to European storybook tradition.