Enlarge Your Paris and les Magasins Généraux are publishing the third edition of The Grand Parisians Guide, the essential practical guide to enjoying Greater Paris—set to be released in bookstores on June 7, 2024.
Today, Greater Paris is more central than ever to public conversations. But do we really know what it looks like? This is why, starting in 2018, Enlarge Your Paris and Magasins Généraux envisioned the first cultural guide dedicated to this bustling world-city: a reference book created by two entities deeply involved in Greater Paris.
Beyond the Paris ring road, this evolving area is teeming with hidden treasures: 1,200 performance venues, more than 300 museums and art centers, 200 festivals, five UNESCO World Heritage sites, four regional natural parks with breathtaking landscapes, and prestigious yet little-known sports facilities... up until now.
For its third edition, The Grand Parisians Guide features a selection of over 300 must-visit places: museums, concert halls, restaurants, galleries, urban farms, parks... It continues to offer an original approach to the region, with a map divided into ten major neighborhoods, disregarding the traditional borders between central Paris and its suburbs, thus creating a rich and unexpected portrait of both Paris and its surrounding areas.
Le Guide des Grands Parisiens proposes viewing Greater Paris as the world’s largest low-carbon sports ground. With 390 train stations outside of Paris proper, it forms a gigantic 12,000 km² stadium, connecting larger natural spaces than Paris itself with world-class facilities accessible to everyone. Readers are invited to discover fifty sports addresses to celebrate the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and their legacy. Ready, set, visit!
Greater Paris represents a new chapter in the story of Paris, which was previously defined by the limits of the ring road. To blur this physical and psychological boundary between Paris and the suburbs, Enlarge Your Paris and Magasins Généraux have designed an innovative map of Greater Paris as perceived by its residents and visitors. It consists of ten evocatively named "Grand Neighborhoods," which offer a de-centered perspective on Paris by transcending traditional borders and proposing an open, accessible metropolis with diverse worlds to explore.
La Fabrique
From the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin to the popular neighborhoods of the 93rd district, a new way of shaping the city is emerging in the Factory neighborhoods—places as contrasting as they are inventive.
L’Hypermuseum
4,030 km separate the forecourt of the Centre Pompidou in Paris from the terrace of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Between them, culture has carved out one of the most prestigious showrooms in the world.
L’Océan Vert
A natural park akin to the Landes or the Luberon, the Haute Vallée de Chevreuse spans an area six times the size of Paris, with Versailles, a city known worldwide, at its doorstep.
Le Rooftop
Just as the Auvergne has the Puys chain and Isère has the Vercors mountains, Greater Paris has the Parisis hills. They are equally worth a visit, offering stunning views of Paris and its outskirts.
Le Delta
On one side, the Seine, whose Parisian banks are a UNESCO World Heritage site. On the other, the Marne, France’s longest river. Between them, there is much to discover.
Les Champs
From chalk cliffs along the Seine to vast fields and character-filled villages, the landscapes of the Vexin Français Natural Park will amaze you.
La Forêt Enchantée
It delights hikers and climbing enthusiasts and may one day be a World Heritage site. With its hidden landscapes, the Fontainebleau Forest feels straight out of a fairy tale.
La Petite Riviera
With palm trees, stately villas, and boats on the horizon, Enghien exudes a French Riviera atmosphere, making it the ideal seaside escape without leaving Greater Paris.
La Street Galerie
From Paris’s 13th arrondissement to Vitry, the walls of Greater Paris serve as canvases for artists from around the world. A sprawling open-air gallery waiting to be explored.
Le Square XXL
From the Parc de Sceaux to the Vallée-aux-Loups Park, and from the Meudon Forest to the Île Saint-Germain Park, the green spaces of the XXL Square form an archipelago to navigate.
THE AUTHORS
Renaud Charles and Vianney Delourme, co-founders of the independent media Enlarge Your Paris, have been exploring and telling the story of Greater Paris for over 10 years, revealing a side of the region beyond the ring road that defies stereotypes about the suburbs. Despite its 12 million inhabitants, Greater Paris remains largely unknown, which they sought to remedy with the help of Enlarge Your Paris’s team of journalists. Every week, they send a newsletter of weekend outings in Greater Paris to more than 80,000 subscribers and organize hikes to help people discover the landscapes and cultural treasures beyond the ring road.
L'ÉDITEUR
Magasins Généraux is a cultural space created by BETC in 2017 on the banks of the Canal de l’Ourcq in Pantin, where creativity, ideas, and new voices resonate. They offer a year-round program of free exhibitions and events, open to everyone. Magasins Généraux aim to identify, support, and bring visibility to artists, creators, project leaders, thinkers, activists, associations, and audiences from all walks of life who contribute to today’s artistic and cultural emergence. By engaging with these new voices, their inspirations, projects, and concerns, they strive to become a place where the art and ideas of tomorrow come to life. A laboratory where different creative fields intersect, Magasins Généraux firmly believe that the future is being invented in Greater Paris.
Richly illustrated, the guide offers more than 100 photographs throughout its pages to give readers a glimpse of each destination. Colorful and easy to handle, it also includes maps of each neighborhood to help readers find their way and identify walking routes. The edition also features a map of long-distance hiking trails in the Île-de-France region and their train access points.
Clear and concise, the guide provides a practical description for each selected destination, detailing opening hours, reservation information, and how to get there—focusing on places accessible by public transport. To go further, readers are invited to explore additional online resources to experience new adventures off the beaten path.
THE PHOTOGRAPHEr
This edition is illustrated by photographer Vincent Migrenne, who, based on recommendations from Enlarge Your Paris, traveled through the ten Grand Neighborhoods by metro and bike. From Fontainebleau to Enghien-les-Bains, from Versailles to Pantin, he offers a poetic and graphic perspective on Greater Paris through his original photographs. Each photograph in the guide is accompanied by a caption, often humorous and poetic, written by him.
Vincent Migrenne exhibited at the International Center of Photography in New York as part of the Global Images for Global Crisis exhibition. He also exhibited in 2019 at the Fisheye Gallery and in 2017 in the Paris metro as part of the #photogRATPhie competition sponsored by Magnum Photos.
PARTNERS
This third edition of The Grand Parisians Guide was made possible thanks to the support of major partners engaged in the Greater Paris area, all of whom contribute in their own way to the development and promotion of this evolving metropolis:
BETC, Disneyland, EDF, Explore Paris, In Seine-Saint-Denis, La Poste, Mediatransports, Métropole du Grand Paris, Paris Aéroport, Plaine commune, RATP, Région Île-de-France, Société des Grands Projets, Ville de Paris
FESTIVAL
From June 7 to June 23, join Balade Grand Parisienne, a festival surrounding the guide, held at Magasins Généraux. The event will feature an exhibition of Greater Paris landscapes selected by Enlarge Your Paris and photographed by Vincent Migrenne, a guinguette (open-air café) by Demory, and multidisciplinary events (music, performances, food, sports activities, dance, and a bookstore), designed as a true space for living and meeting. Hikes and bike rides will also be offered to explore Greater Paris.
You can find the full program in the agenda.
