Every design for Massy

Step out of Massy TGV station and you are in one of only three purpose-built high-speed stations in the Paris suburbs, right next to the RER at Massy–Palaiseau. For many people, that platform is their first glimpse of the town.

What makes Massy different is how much it holds for a suburb. It has the only opera house in the Paris suburbs, an international circus festival that draws audiences from abroad, and the Château de Vilgénis, now an Air France training centre, and the Espace Naturel de Vilgénis nearby. In a short time it grew from a large borough into a town of tower blocks and new neighbourhoods, and it sits on the eastern edge of the Paris-Saclay technology cluster. The scientist Nicolas Appert was among those who made it their adopted home.

For those who live here, though, Massy is mostly the Arboretum municipal Roger de Vilmorin on a Sunday, a stroll by the Bièvre and the departure boards ticking over at the station.