The countdown has begun: artist JR has taken over the Pont Neuf.
By 6 June, Paris’s oldest bridge will have been turned into a cavern.
La Caverne du Pont Neuf (source in French)is the name of his monumental work: 120 metres long, 20 metres wide and up to 18 metres high.
For the artist, the aim is to “juxtapose the raw and the wild” and to create “a dialogue between past and present”.
Artist JR, creator of the projectArtist JR, creator of the project
Some Parisians are thrilled; others rather less so.
“I like it when Paris is alive, and this is clearly going to be a really beautiful event,” enthuses a thirty-something in front of the old bridge, currently under renovation.
“I’m a bit disappointed, in that it doesn’t really move me for the moment,” sulks a Parisian woman.
Pont Neuf, Paris, 18 May 2026Pont Neuf, Paris, 18 May 2026
La Caverne du Pont Neuf will be open to everyone, 24 hours a day, for three weeks.
It is an immersive work: JR has asked Daft Punk Thomas Bangalter, a former member of the duo, to create the sound world that is to pervade it.
JR’s monumental work comes forty years after that of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the artist duo who wrapped the Pont Neuf in fabric.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 1985Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 1985
And as with the wrapped Pont Neuf, JR’s Cavern is a project funded entirely by private sponsorship.
La Caverne du Pont Neuf will be in place from 6 to 28 June.