What can architects and interior designers discover when they experience French architecture beyond the usual itinerary? Austin-based interior designer Amity Worrel shares her perspective on Maison Janneau’s 2026 Window Design Trip through Paris and Nantes.
For architects and interior designers, travelling to France can be much more than visiting famous buildings. It is an opportunity to experience architecture within its cultural context: to see how materials, craftsmanship, light, landscape and interiors come together, and to meet the people who continue to shape French design today.
Every year, Maison Janneau invites a select group of American architects and designers to France for the Window Design Trip, a curated architectural journey combining visits to exceptional buildings, cultural landmarks, design destinations and our own workshops in the Loire Valley.
In 2026, Austin-based interior designer Amity Worrel joined us for the journey. Her account, Paris Through an Architect’s Lens, offers an insightful perspective on what an architecture tour for architects and designers in France can become when it moves beyond sightseeing.
Why take an architecture tour in France?
France offers an extraordinary concentration of architectural history and design influences, from historic monuments and châteaux to modernist landmarks and contemporary cultural buildings.
But for architects and designers, the value of experiencing these places in person goes beyond seeing them in books or photographs
It is about understanding proportion by standing inside a space. Seeing how natural light changes throughout a room. Observing the relationship between architecture and furniture. Discovering how traditional craftsmanship has evolved alongside contemporary technology.
Amity’s experience illustrates this particularly well. As an interior designer travelling with a group largely composed of architects, she found herself looking at familiar design questions from a different perspective. She describes the experience as an opportunity to understand how architects and interior designers can approach the same spaces differently: architects often beginning with structure, form and systems, while interior designers consider how people inhabit a space, from texture and comfort to atmosphere and emotion. Together, these perspectives create richer places.
That exchange is one of the reasons Maison Janneau created the Window Design Trip in the first place.
Discovering French architecture through different perspectives
The 2026 journey began with a visit to Maison Louis Carré, the only building in France designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.
Set within a wooded landscape outside Paris, the house offered a particularly relevant introduction to the trip. Amity was struck by the seamless relationship between the architecture and the interiors: surfaces, materials, furniture, sightlines and natural light appeared to have been considered as part of one complete experience.
For architects and designers, this kind of visit provides something that architectural photography cannot: the opportunity to understand a building at human scale.
The journey continued through some of Paris and the surrounding region’s most significant architectural and cultural destinations, including the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Villa Savoye, La Samaritaine and the Musée Albert-Kahn.
Each offered a different perspective on the relationship between architecture, engineering, history, landscape and design.
At the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, for example, the monumental iron structure demonstrates how engineering can become an integral part of architectural expression. At Villa Savoye, the group experienced firsthand a building whose influence has extended far beyond its original context. And at La Samaritaine, the dialogue between historic architecture and contemporary intervention provided another perspective particularly relevant to architects working on renovation and heritage projects today.
Architecture is also about atmosphere
An architecture tour for architects in France should not be limited to buildings. Some of the most valuable design references can be found in landscapes, interiors, objects and everyday spaces.
The visit to the Musée Albert-Kahn was one such example. Its gardens, inspired by different cultures around the world, offered a reminder that design extends beyond the building envelope. Landscape, movement, atmosphere and emotion all contribute to how a space is experienced.
For Maison Janneau, this is particularly relevant. Windows and doors occupy a unique position between architecture and the experience of an interior. They frame views, introduce natural light, connect interior and exterior spaces and influence the character of a room.
This is why we believe that understanding architecture as a complete experience is essential to designing exceptional windows and doors.
From architectural inspiration to French craftsmanship
The second part of the Window Design Trip brought the group from Paris to Nantes and into the world of French craftsmanship. This is where the journey becomes particularly different from a conventional architecture tour.
Rather than simply looking at finished buildings, participants are invited to discover how bespoke architectural elements are designed and manufactured.
At Maison Janneau’s workshops, the group explored the craftsmanship behind our custom windows and doors: from traditional techniques to the technologies required to meet contemporary performance standards.
For Amity, one of the highlights was meeting Henry Janneau, who has spent more than five decades at the head of the company.
His involvement offered a direct connection between the history of French craftsmanship and its future. His enthusiasm for the company and for sharing French savoir-faire with the American market was, in Amity’s words, something that required little translation. This connection between heritage and contemporary performance is at the heart of Maison Janneau.
Our work often involves historic or architecturally significant buildings where the challenge is not simply to reproduce an existing window, but to understand its proportions, materials and details while introducing the performance expected from a modern building.
Projects such as the Musée Dobrée in Nantes demonstrate this approach. During its renovation, Maison Janneau produced 33 custom steel windows, including 10 fire-rated units, integrating contemporary technical requirements into a historically significant building.
Experiencing these projects in person allows architects and designers to see the relationship between the finished architecture and the craftsmanship behind it.
Why architects and designers benefit from travelling together
Perhaps the most unexpected lesson from the Window Design Trip was not architectural at all. It was human. Amity writes that travelling together compresses relationships: professional acquaintances can become friends surprisingly quickly when people share experiences outside the usual constraints of projects, deadlines and meetings.
For architects and interior designers, this is particularly valuable. The professions regularly collaborate, but rarely have the opportunity to spend several days together simply observing, discussing and experiencing architecture.
Away from the office and the construction site, conversations develop differently. Ideas are exchanged more freely. Different approaches to design become visible. And a visit to a building can turn into a much broader discussion about materials, craftsmanship, history or the way people experience a space.
The goal is not simply to show American architects and designers a selection of French buildings. It is to create an environment where professionals can discover, question, exchange and be inspired together.
What makes the Window Design Trip different?
An architecture tour in France can take many forms. The Window Design Trip is designed specifically around the interests of architects and interior designers.
It combines:
- Architectural visits to significant historic, modern and contemporary buildings
- French cultural experiences that provide context beyond architecture
- Access to craftsmanship and manufacturing, including Maison Janneau’s workshops
- Visits to completed projects where participants can see bespoke windows and doors in their architectural context
- Conversations with designers, craftsmen and industry professionals
- Time for professional exchange between American architects, interior designers and Maison Janneau
- A direct connection to French architectural heritage and savoir-faire
The result is less a conventional guided tour and more an immersive design journey. And, as Amity’s experience demonstrates, sometimes the most memorable moments are the ones that were never on the itinerary: whether discovering an unexpected design reference, continuing a conversation over dinner or, eventually, standing in a Nantes park eating ice cream together.
Experiencing France through an architect’s eyes
For Maison Janneau, inviting American architects and designers to France is an extension of what we do every day.
Our work is rooted in French architectural culture, craftsmanship and the belief that a window or door should be considered as part of the architecture rather than as an isolated product. The Window Design Trip gives architects and designers the opportunity to experience that philosophy firsthand.
Amity left France with new architectural references, new perspectives on the relationship between architecture and interior design, and new professional connections. Her words also capture something we hope every participant takes home: that architecture is not only about the buildings we visit. It is about the materials we touch, the light we experience, the craftsmanship we discover and the people with whom we share the journey.
Interested in joining a future Window Design Trip?
Maison Janneau welcomes a select group of American architects and interior designers to France each year to discover French architecture, craftsmanship and bespoke architectural projects firsthand.
