Industrial and derelict locations to film in France
36 of them, 14 with a photo and 13 with practical details the location publishes itself. 2 have a documented shooting history. Every entry links to the location or to the body that manages it.
Factories, warehouses, power stations, mines, depots and abandoned buildings: raw space, hard surfaces and the kind of decay that is impossible to build.
Shooting in France pays back through the Tax Rebate for International Production (TRIP / C2I) (30% (40% VFX-heavy)): work out the net value on your own spend in the incentive comparison.
Ateliers des Capucins
Industrial & derelict
Former naval machine shops above the Penfeld converted into a covered public plateau, with cast iron columns, overhead cranes, preserved machinery and a glazed roof.
Base sous-marine de Saint-Nazaire (La Base)
Industrial & derelict
Reinforced-concrete U-boat pens built by the German navy in WWII on the Saint-Nazaire docks, now holding exhibition halls, a climbing wall and a rooftop garden.
Bassins de Lumières
Industrial & derelict
Former WWII submarine pens on the Bordeaux docks converted into a digital art centre, with four raw concrete basins used for large-scale wall and floor projections.
Capacity: 900 · Two indoor spaces: the Citerne (155 sqm, 360-degree projection) and the Cube (220 sqm, soundproofed), plus elevated walkways and tiered seating....
Centre Historique Minier (Lewarde Mining Centre)
Industrial & derelict
Preserved coal mine museum in the former Delloye colliery, with pithead buildings, a headframe, underground galleries and workshops from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais coalfield.
Capacity: 200 · Salle Jules Mousseron (70 sqm), Salle Lucien Jonas (36 sqm) and Salle Albert Bouquillon (34 sqm) meeting rooms, plus the Auditorium Georges Delerue...
Écomusée Creusot Montceau
Industrial & derelict
Industrial heritage network around the former Schneider steelworks in Le Creusot, with the Château de la Verrerie glassworks-turned-mansion as its main site.
Halle Tony Garnier
Industrial & derelict
A vast steel-framed former livestock market hall of 1864 in central Lyon, converted into the city's largest standing-capacity venue for concerts, trade fairs and exhibitions.
Seen in: L'Innocent
L'Aventure Michelin
Industrial & derelict
Michelin's visitor site in a former factory building at Cataroux in Clermont-Ferrand, with exhibition halls, period machinery, tyre making displays and industrial yards.
Les Frigos
Industrial & derelict
Former refrigerated railway goods depot near the old Paris-Ivry station, now artist studios behind a graffiti-covered brick facade, with raw interiors and a covered yard in the 13th arrondissement.
Les Machines de l'Ile
Industrial & derelict
Former Dubigeon shipyard halls on the Ile de Nantes, with steel framed naves, gantries and workshops housing large mechanical animals and a carousel.
Les Subsistances
Industrial & derelict
Former military supply depot on the Saone quays in Lyon, now a centre for performing-arts creation with rehearsal halls, a courtyard and studios, published as available to hire.
Capacity: 2000 · La Verriere and La Boulangerie each take up to 2,000 people for a cocktail reception or 800 for a seated dinner (La Verriere available April to...
Motoco
Industrial & derelict
Former DMC textile hall in Mulhouse used as artist and maker studios, with long concrete bays, roof lights, freight doors and bare brick walls over several floors.
Ouvrage du Hackenberg
Industrial & derelict
Largest work of the Maginot Line, with about 10 km of underground galleries, an electric railway, a generator hall, kitchens, dormitories and gun blocks in raw concrete and steel.
Parc de Wesserling
Industrial & derelict
Former royal textile works in a Vosges valley: 19th century spinning and weaving halls, a chimney, a chateau, workers housing and terraced gardens inside one site.
Saline royale d'Arc-et-Senans
Industrial & derelict
Semicircular saltworks of 1779 by Ledoux, with a columned gatehouse, the director's house, two long evaporation halls and a wide open courtyard closed by woodland.
Chateau de la Verrerie, Le Creusot
Industrial & derelict
Former crystal works turned Schneider family seat, with two conical glass furnaces in the forecourt, workshops, a small theatre and the Creusot steelworks archive.
Cité de la Voile Éric Tabarly (Keroman submarine base)
Industrial & derelict
WWII U-boat pens on the Keroman peninsula in Lorient with roofs up to 7.5 metres thick, now holding a sailing museum, boatyards and a marina business park.
Capacity: 380 · Named spaces include the Auditorium, Karré Affaires (modular cocktail/reception space), two equipped meeting rooms, a permanent exhibition space, and...
Cite du Livre
Industrial & derelict
Former match factory in Aix-en-Provence, converted into a library and performance complex that keeps its industrial brick shell and a large auditorium used by the Festival d'Aix.
Domaine Pommery
Industrial & derelict
Champagne house on 18 km of Gallo-Roman chalk pits about 30 m down, reached by a long stair, with carved galleries, bottle stacks and Elizabethan style buildings above ground.
Entrepot Beraud-Sudreau
Industrial & derelict
A 10,000 square metre former warehouse in Brive-la-Gaillarde, split into two halls of 6,000 and 4,000 square metres with 200 square metres of offices, listed by the regional film commission.
Two buildings of 6,000 and 4,000 square metres including 200 square metres of offices
Official siteFilm commissionCommission listingCompare this one
Escat
Industrial & derelict
A former tobacco-processing plant in Bergerac with five buildings totalling 42,000 square metres, offered by the regional film commission for productions needing large industrial floor space.
Five buildings of 20,000, 5,500, 5,500, 5,500 and 5,500 square metres
Official siteFilm commissionCommission listingCompare this one
France-Tabac
Industrial & derelict
A former tobacco warehouse complex on the edge of Sarlat-la-Caneda, five buildings totalling 14,400 square metres, listed by the Perigord film office for set construction and large interiors.
Five buildings of 6,235, 2,700, 2,160, 2,160 and 1,141 square metres
Official siteFilm commissionCommission listingCompare this one
Grande Saline de Salins-les-Bains
Industrial & derelict
Salt works with a 13th century vaulted underground gallery, brine pumps still in place and a 165 m evaporation hall, in a small spa town below wooded slopes.
Halle Tropisme
Industrial & derelict
Former army vehicle workshop of about 4,000 m2 in Montpellier turned into a cultural venue, with steel trusses, concrete floors, studios, a bar and a courtyard.
La Condition Publique
Industrial & derelict
Former municipal wool-conditioning warehouse in Roubaix, a long glass-roofed 19th-century industrial hall now run as a cultural and event venue.
Capacity: 5000 · More than 10,000 sqm across named spaces: Rue couverte, Verrière, Halle A, B and C, Plateau Coucke et Labos, Le Club, L'Alim, and Les Toits Terrasses....
La Friche la Belle de Mai
Industrial & derelict
Former SEITA tobacco factory in Marseille converted into a multi-storey arts complex, with raw concrete floors, a rooftop garden and a skatepark, hired out through its own privatisation service.
Capacity: 4000 · Accommodates 10 to 4,000 people; La Cartonnerie is a 2,500 sqm modular space; the roof terrace is 8,000 sqm with views over Marseille; meeting rooms...
La Sucriere
Industrial & derelict
Former sugar warehouse on the Confluence docks in Lyon, a long brick and concrete shed on the Saone quayside, now an exhibition and events venue run by a professional events operator.
Capacity: 4000 · 5,100 sqm covered in total, including 3,800 sqm of event space and 1,700 sqm of exhibition space; 5 balcony terraces overlooking the Saone; capacity...
Lagora
Industrial & derelict
A disused 10,000 square metre leisure and commercial complex in Angouleme, split across three buildings and listed by the regional film commission for large-scale sets.
Three buildings of 3,650, 2,411 and 1,552 square metres
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Le Silo
Industrial & derelict
1920s grain silo on Marseille's Arenc docks, gutted and rebuilt inside as a concert and conference hall while keeping its raw concrete exterior, hired for shows and corporate events.
Le Tripostal
Industrial & derelict
Former postal sorting depot beside Lille-Flandres station, converted into a bare-shell exhibition hall with high ceilings and loading-bay access, hired for shows and events.
Les Abattoirs, Musee - Frac Occitanie Toulouse
Industrial & derelict
Former municipal slaughterhouse on the Garonne in Toulouse, converted into a contemporary art museum that keeps the original brick halls, steel roof trusses and a loading yard.
Capacity: 2000 · La Nef is 38 m long and 10 m wide with brick walls and high ceilings; Salle Picasso is 15 m by 12 m; the Auditorium stage is 10.8 m long and 3.8 m...
Les Docks, Marseille
Industrial & derelict
Row of 19th-century dockside warehouses on the Joliette waterfront, restored around an internal courtyard of offices, shops and restaurants.
Mine temoin d'Ales
Industrial & derelict
Training colliery on the edge of Ales with about 650 m of galleries, cutting machines, timber and steel props, a pithead yard and a lamp room.
Musee des mines de fer de Lorraine, Neufchef
Industrial & derelict
Iron ore museum set inside a real gallery, with about 1.5 km of tunnels, rail wagons, drilling and loading machines and lit ore faces at three periods of working.
Puits Couriot, Parc-Musee de la Mine
Industrial & derelict
Colliery closed in 1973 and kept as a museum: winding towers, the 1948 hanging changing room, lamp room, workshops, slag heaps and a visitable underground gallery.
Seen in: Le Brasier
Station F
Industrial & derelict
Former Halle Freyssinet railway freight depot, a single steel-framed hall over 300 metres long in southeast Paris, now a start-up campus with open floors and event space.
Transpalux
Industrial & derelict
A film lighting and grip company's premises in Saint-Yrieix-sur-Charente near Angoulême, offered by the regional film commission as three separate industrial halls of 487 to 710 square metres.
Three buildings of 603.7, 710.4 and 487.1 square metres
Official siteFilm commissionCommission listingCompare this one
Industrial and derelict locations elsewhere in Europe
- Germany 48
- Spain 43
- United Kingdom 39
- Italy 30
- Poland 28
- Czech Republic 22
- Netherlands 15
- Greece 14
- Romania 13
- Portugal 11
- Hungary 10
- Serbia 10
Other kinds of location in France
- Theatres, arenas and venues 30
- Offices, schools and public buildings 23
- Transport and infrastructure 20
- Film studios and backlots 14
- Hospitals, prisons and institutions 15
- Houses and apartments 12
- Hotels and interiors 8
- Castles and estates 14
- Churches and monasteries 10
- Villages and countryside 8
- Modern architecture 8
All locations in France · Industrial and derelict locations across Europe · Search all 2827 locations