The 2026 Grand Paris Express Walking Tour
Following Sport in 2024, in tune with the Olympics, then Urban Culture in 2025, this 7th edition moves into a new era: one of openings. Line 18, which will ultimately connect Orly and Versailles via the Saclay plateau, will inaugurate its first stations in autumn 2026. Line 15 South, the first Grand Paris Express circular line, will follow in the spring of 2027. A few months before these historical openings, this walking tour offers the opportunity to explore these areas undergoing radical transformation.
An Open-air Art Gallery
The Grand Paris Express not only links stations: it connects museums, national performance venues, artists' studios and remarkable architectural landmarks. From the Palace of Versailles to MAC VAL, from the Manufacture de Sèvres to the future Ile-de-France Pompidou Centre in Massy, from the Foujiti House-Workshop to Jean Debuffet's monumental sculpture "Tour aux Figures", this 2026 edition reveals a cultural archipelago soon to be accessible to all those taking the metro on the future lines 18 and 15 South.
The stations themselves are works of art. The tour passes through 17 future stations where architects and artists have worked in tandem: Dietmar Feichtinger in collaboration with Anselm Kiefer and Hervé di Rosa, Richez with Laure Prouvost, Jean-Marie Duthilleul with Ryoji Ikeda and Fabrice Hyber, Dominique Perrault with Iván Navarro, Thomas Richez with Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Frédéric Neau with Abdelkader Benchamma, thus creating a durable visual identity. In 2025 Villejuif–Gustave-Roussy station, designed by the architect Dominique Perrault, won the 2025 Versailles Prize in the "Gares and Stations" category.
With 1,000 hikers expected, 180 kilometres and ten days to explore, there is only one thing left to do - well two: sign up - it's free - and follow the guide.
