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The Gazette · Toulon, Var & beyond

The Gazette: culture, society, entertainment and discoveries

Literature, books, exhibitions, bookshops, concerts, culture, society, entertainment, gastronomy and discoveries from Toulon, the Var and beyond.

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The Musée virtuel du Var combines contemporary art, tablet-based mediation and virtual reality at Toulon's Maison de l’Étudiant. AI illustration
Exhibitions AI-translated text By Jean-François Callen5 views

In Toulon, a Museum Without Walls Brings Contemporary Art into Virtual Reality

From 5 October to 16 November, the travelling Musée virtuel du Var arrives at Maison de l’Étudiant with twelve works and immersive digital tools.

Does a museum necessarily need galleries, walls and a permanent address? The Musée virtuel du Var suggests otherwise. From 5 October to 16 November 2026, the travelling departmental project will be installed at Toulon's Maison de l’Étudiant with twelve works, interactive tablets and a virtual-reality experience.

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“En vogue ! Les marins et la mode” brings naval heritage and fashion design together at Musée Balaguier in La Seyne-sur-Mer. AI illustration
Exhibitions AI-translated text By Jean-François Callen5 views

In La Seyne, the Sailor's Uniform Tells Another History of Fashion

From 3 October 2026 to 19 September 2027, Musée Balaguier explores how naval clothing moved from regulation to popular culture and haute couture.

The striped sailor shirt, pea coat and naval trousers now belong as easily to fashion windows as to military history. Yet each began as functional clothing governed by strict rules. From 3 October, Musée Balaguier in La Seyne-sur-Mer presents “En vogue ! Les marins et la mode”, tracing the remarkable passage of naval uniforms into popular fashion and couture.

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Ravel's “L’Enfant et les Sortilèges”, based on Colette's libretto, will be performed twice at Toulon's Zénith on 3 October. AI illustration
Culture AI-translated text By Jean-François Callen5 views

In Toulon, Ravel and Colette Give Opera Back Its Childhood Imagination

“L’Enfant et les Sortilèges” moves outside the opera house for two family performances at the Zénith on 3 October. Category

A rebellious armchair, a talking teapot, a squirrel, a princess and a child forced to face the consequences of his anger: “L’Enfant et les Sortilèges” has never resembled the intimidating stereotype of opera. On 3 October 2026, Maurice Ravel's work, based on a libretto by Colette, will be performed twice at Toulon's Zénith in an off-site production aimed partly at families.

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The 2026 Fête de la science in Toulon explores food, the human body and research through the theme “Saveurs Savantes”. AI illustration
Exhibitions AI-translated text By Jean-François Callen11 views

In Toulon, This Year's Science Festival Begins on the Plate

From 2 to 12 October, “Saveurs Savantes” uses food, cooking and the human body as gateways into scientific research.

Can a samosa become a scientific object? In Toulon this October, apparently so. From 2 to 12 October 2026, the Fête de la science adopts the theme “Saveurs Savantes”, with workshops and events across the city. Food becomes a particularly accessible way to discuss biology, health, transformation and scientific thinking with audiences who may never normally enter a laboratory.

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PixelVault.cards provides online editors for the main components of a board-game prototype, from cards and boards to rules and play money. AI illustration
Entertainment AI-translated text By Jean-François Callen13 views

Pixel Vault Wants to Put Board-Game Prototyping Inside a Web Browser

Cards, boards, rules, play money and print-ready preparation are brought together in one online workshop.

Inventing a board game sounds simple until the designer has to build fifty double-sided cards, draw a correctly sized board, lay out the rules and prepare usable print files. PixelVault.cards focuses on that less visible part of game creation. Running in a browser, it brings several prototyping tools into one workspace. Creation remains free after registration, while a licence is required when the designer needs production exports.

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Gamersmile combines retro game tips, challenges, quizzes, rankings and player profiles in a single community website. AI illustration
Entertainment AI-translated text By Jean-François Callen14 views

Gamersmile Wants to Bring Something Back to Retro Gaming: Playing Together

Cheats, high scores, quizzes, collections and Recalbox challenges turn the French website into more than a database of old game codes.

Old video games have long survived on the Internet through code lists, walkthroughs and databases. Gamersmile takes a broader approach, combining cheats and tips with scoreboards, quizzes, player profiles, collections and Recalbox challenges. Behind the nostalgia lies a simple idea: a game released thirty years ago can still become a place for competition, conversation and community in 2026.

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Claudie Gallay comes to La Seyne-sur-Mer on 8 October to discuss La promesse des chiens, her novel inspired by Alaska in 1925. AI illustration
Literature AI-translated text By Jean-François Callen15 views

Claudie Gallay in La Seyne: Turning the Alaska of 1925 into a Novel of Solidarity

The author of Les Déferlantes will appear at Charlemagne bookshop on 8 October to discuss La promesse des chiens, inspired by Nome’s historic serum run.

Claudie Gallay will meet readers at Charlemagne bookshop in La Seyne-sur-Mer on Thursday 8 October at 7 p.m. Her new 2026 novel, La promesse des chiens, published by Le Cercle Ouvert, takes the author far from Europe to Alaska in 1925. In the depths of winter, an epidemic threatens the isolated town of Nome, forcing men and their dogs to attempt what seems impossible.

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An Alexander Calder mobile displayed as part of “Calder, équilibre en couleurs” at La Banque, Musée des Cultures et du Paysage in Hyères. AI illustration
Exhibitions AI-translated text By Jean-François Callen33 views

In Hyères, Calder Sets La Banque in Motion

The Musée des Cultures et du Paysage devotes its summer exhibition to the inventor of the mobile, revealing an artist whose work extended far beyond suspended sculpture.

A few pieces of metal, lengths of wire, coloured shapes and almost nothing holding them in space. Until 31 October 2026, La Banque, Musée des Cultures et du Paysage in Hyères, is presenting “Calder, équilibre en couleurs”. Bringing together 69 works, the exhibition looks beyond Calder’s famous mobiles to include gouaches, lithographs, bronzes and ink drawings, showing how Alexander Calder introduced actual movement into twentieth-century sculpture.

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Created in Toulon during the 1930s, Chanteclair is a frozen coffee-praline cake traditionally decorated with a rooster in icing sugar. AI illustration
Gastronomy AI-assisted text By Jean-François Callen43 views

Chanteclair, Toulon’s other rooster

Created in a Toulon pastry shop in the 1930s, this frozen meringue, coffee-praline and hazelnut cake carries a rooster in icing sugar on top. Almost a century later, it is still being made in the city.

Cade belongs to the street market, while historic chichi frégi was inseparable from Cours Lafayette. Chanteclair belongs to another category of Toulon memories: Sunday lunches, birthdays and the cake collected from the pastry shop before being allowed to soften briefly outside the freezer. Created in Toulon by a pastry chef named Calvi during the 1930s, this unusual frozen dessert decorated with a rooster has survived to the present day. Unlike some other local symbols, it can still be bought in Toulon.

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