Every year in April, hundreds of workshops open their doors for a week. The JEMA (Journées Européennes des Métiers d’Art) is the only time of year you can watch an enameller at work, a blacksmith folding a blade, a wood turner finding the curve. Not on video. In person. The heat, the noise, the smell.

The twentieth edition runs from April 7 to 12, 2026, with the theme “Cœurs à l’ouvrage.” Over a thousand events across France. The problem, precisely, is the thousand. The official programme is a catalogue, not a guide. Everything’s in there, from scrapbooking workshops to a master glassblower who’s been at it for forty years. Same weight, same presentation.

What follows is a selection. Biased, unapologetic, based on what we know and what’s worth the journey. Not fifty addresses: a dozen, across different disciplines. For each one, the craft to see and the reason to go.

Forge and metal

Thiers, knife capital

This is the ideal week to visit Thiers. The Vallée des Rouets, workshops clinging to the hillside, knifemakers still working in premises their grandfathers would recognise. Several workshops open during the JEMA, and the Cité des Couteliers regularly hosts exhibitions dedicated to Thiers’ art cutlery.

Goyon-Chazeau, K. Sabatier, Perceval: three houses featured in the guide, three ways of working. The first has been making table cutlery since the 1950s. The second defends the original Sabatier name against industrial copies. The third chose clean design and high-end steel. If only one Thiers workshop is open during your visit, go. Grinding on the wheel, hand assembly, final honing — it’s a masterclass in an hour.

Forge de Laguiole, Aubrac

France’s other cutlery hub. The building designed by Philippe Starck, planted in the middle of the Aubrac plateau, is spectacular. The workshop is open year-round, but during the JEMA the blacksmiths take the time to explain. Shaping the blade, the spring, the famous folding mechanism. What stays with you: the slowness. A serious Laguiole takes hours of work.

Villedieu-les-Poêles, Normandy

Mauviel has been in Villedieu-les-Poêles since 1830. The entire town has lived by copper since the Middle Ages. The Atelier du Cuivre, the bell foundry, the Mauviel factory: in a single day, you see metal in all its forms. The gesture to remember at Mauviel is the hammering. Hand-hammered copper pans — a skill that three or four workshops in the world still master.

Earth and fire

Manufacture de Sèvres

On Saturday April 11, the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres opens its doors for free. It’s one of the rare places in the world where porcelain is still entirely shaped, glazed and painted by hand using techniques unchanged since the 18th century. Access is through the Jardin des Métiers d’Art et du Design, at 6 Grande Rue in Sèvres. No booking required, continuous visits from 10am to 6pm.

What you’ll see: slip casting in plaster moulds, throwing, painting on raw enamel. Gestures of absurd precision. The kind of thing that makes you want to put down your mass-produced ceramic mug and think.

Bernardaud, Limoges

If Sèvres embodies state tradition, Bernardaud represents the private excellence of Limoges porcelain. The factory offers tours of its production site where kaolin — the white clay that made Limoges’ fortune — is transformed into pieces of remarkable fineness. Limoges also hosts CRAFT, a collective dedicated to the skilled trades, which runs a specific programme during the JEMA.

Thread and fabric

Basketry in Grand Est

In Fayl-Billot, historic capital of basketry (which obtained its IGP in 2025), basket weavers regularly open their doors during the JEMA. Basketry is one of those trades people assume has disappeared. It hasn’t. It’s become rarer, which makes it all the more valuable to witness.

Mortagne-au-Perche, Normandy

Twenty-five artisans gathered in a small Perche town. Lacemakers, cabinetmakers, gilders, calligraphers, ceramists. The format is ideal: a human-scale town, everything walkable, and the density of craftsmanship per square metre is unbeatable. The Perche, incidentally, has become a quiet refuge for artisans who left Paris. The quality of life has something to do with it. The quality of the work, too.

The major Parisian institutions

For those staying in Paris, the week is packed. A few essentials.

The Monnaie de Paris opens its workshops on April 11 and 12: striking demonstrations, behind-the-scenes tours, workshops for all ages. The Viaduc des Arts, in the 12th arrondissement, brings together its cabinetmakers, glassblowers, gilders and ironworkers under the arches of the former railway from April 10 to 12. The Louvre and the Jardin des Tuileries welcome during the JEMA the artisans who restore and maintain these monuments daily (dates and times to be confirmed on louvre.fr).

And then there’s the “Entrez en Matières” exhibition at the Fondation Fiminco in Romainville (April 9 to 12, free). Over thirty crafts presented in live demonstrations. Leather, wood, lacquer, goldsmithing. It’s the fifth edition, jointly organised by the Manufactures nationales, the Campus Mode Métiers d’Art and the Comité Colbert.

Practical tips

Dates. April 7 to 12, 2026. The heart of the event falls on the weekend of April 11–12, when most workshops open. But some venues (Monnaie de Paris, certain museums) are open all week.

Registration. Most events are free and require no booking. For regional workshop visits, check the official site journeesdesmetiersdart.fr — some demonstrations require registration.

Advice. Don’t try to see everything. Pick a region or a craft and stick with it. A full day at a Thiers knifemaker’s is worth more than five workshops rushed through at a sprint. The JEMA is when artisans take their time. Take yours too.

Opinel. A word on the Opinel museum in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. It’s open year-round and the knife trail through the Maurienne valley is a detour worth making in any season. But if you’re in Savoie during the JEMA, the museum-plus-valley combination is a sure thing.

The full programme is available at journeesdesmetiersdart.fr, with an interactive map. Filter by craft, by region, by date. And above all: go see what you don’t know. A wood turner, a luthier, a bookbinder. That’s what the JEMA is for: discovering gestures you never suspected existed.