There are many places of culture and cultural heritage in Grand Paris, be they natural or constructed.
An abundant offer is concentrated in Paris: Notre Dame was the number one most visited site until 2018 (12 million visitors), followed by the Sacré Coeur (11 million visitors in 2019) then came the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower (9.5 and 6.2 million respectively). Outside Paris, the Versailles Estate was visited by 8.2 million people in 2019, not forgetting of course Disneyland Paris and its 15 million visitors in 2019 and the medieval town of Provins (1 million). Sites such as the Basilique of Saint-Denis (139,000 visitors in 2019), the Bourget Museum of Air and Space (221,000 visitors in 2019), the National Renaissance Museum in Ecouen (54,600 visitors in 2019), and renowned homes : the Caillebotte property in Yerres (164,000 visitors in 2019) and Chateaubriand’s House in Chatenay-Malabry (121,600 visitors in 2019), all demonstrate the appeal of these places.
Access to these sites will be greatly improved by the large scale transport projects underway. Between 2020 and 2030, 169 new stations will be created in Grand Paris (+ 22% compared with 2020), bringing a total offer of 921 Metro, Transilien, RER, and Tramway stations. A large part of this expansion will be absorbed by the Grand Paris Express network and its 68 stations stretching over 200 kilometres of metro line. This major opening up of the territory will contribute to services to many tourist and cultural sites, with enormous improvements in accessibility for visitors. This will be the case for the Mac/VAL museum in Vitry-sur-Seine, Foujita’s house and studio in Villiers-le-Bâche, and the future Paris Rungis Cité de la gastronomie.
This map juxtaposes Grand Paris’ main cultural and recreational sites with their current attendance rate, and the routes of future transport services, which are gradually becoming operational. The metropolis’ cultural heritage sites, both constructed and natural, could become more closely integrated into tourist routes and the leisure activities of inhabitants in Grand Paris.
