As with every season, one of the events everyone eagerly awaits—especially in Paris and the Île-de-France region—are undoubtedly the Journées du Patrimoine. So, whether you’re in Paris or in all the other departments of the region, discover the historic monuments of the territory, the region’s most beautiful churches and cathedrals, the seats of power, but also a heritage less celebrated, more industrial and artisan, and just as precious as you’ll find during the guided tours, workshops and other activities organized for these very special Days to be experienced on September 19 and 20 next.
In the Essonne department, the town of Essonne is best known for hosting the Saclay campus. Yet Gif-sur-Yvette is a charming destination to explore for these Journées du Patrimoine 2026, with rich vestiges to discover on the occasion. Nestled within the Parc Naturel Régional de la Haute Vallée de Chevreuse, Gif is a very green town offering beautiful hikes starting from its station (RER B).
Don’t miss visiting the various castles, such as Belleville Castle, a historic gem that tells the story of the region, Hermitage Castle, and Val Fleury Castle... Science enthusiasts will be delighted by the campus of Paris-Saclay University, a hub of excellence bringing together top schools and universities. Spanning science, nature and heritage, be sure to discover Gif-sur-Yvette during these European Heritage Days 2026!
Benoît Frachon Centre
Benoit Frachon Centre
Opened in 1975 to honor its former secretary-general, the Benoît Frachon training center sits on the site of the old Courcelle mill. Of that history only the manor remains, having been transformed over the years. Today, the center benefits from a green, leafy setting, enhanced by the presence of several works of art.
Participation requirements: 20 people max - Free | Booking required - opcnhvc@gmail.com
Schedule: Saturday, September 19, 2026 — 10:00–11:30, 14:00–15:30 | Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 10:00–11:30, 14:00–15:30
Visit to the Benoît Frachon Centre
The CGT training center, officially named the Benoît Frachon Center in 1975, sits on the site of the old Courcelle mill, today reduced to the “Manor,” a building that has seen changes over time. The estate was occupied by German forces during World War II, and the Manor was heavily damaged. In 1948, the CGT acquired it and transformed it into a center for union education, offering workshops and evening or weekend courses in a lush setting, enhanced by several works of art, and housing buildings of distinctly original architecture designed for the trainees. It is this rich blend of historical, architectural, and artistic heritage that we invite you to discover during guided tours.
Participation conditions: Limited to 20 people — Free | Registration required — 01 70 56 52 60, culturel@mairie-gif.fr, https://www.ville-gif.fr
Schedule: Saturday, September 19, 2026 — 11:00–12:30, 14:00–15:30 | Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 11:00–12:30, 14:00–15:30
Teilhard de Chardin Center
Activity "In Search of Details"
Throughout the afternoon, visitors can join a photo-detail scavenger hunt.
Ten details around the center will have been photographed in advance and shown to participants. Their task is to roam the center and locate the exact spots where the shots were taken.
Once a detail is found, participants must snap their own photo of the same element and submit it to the game master for validation.
Participation requirements: Free of charge
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 3:00 PM to 8:45 PM
The image in the service of faith
The invention of photography changed the way we depict saints. For the first time, some could be photographed while alive, allowing believers to glimpse their true features and feel closer to them.
But photography doesn’t reveal everything: every image is crafted to highlight a particular facet of a saint’s life, personality, or mission. Through several examples, this workshop will invite readers to explore how photography transmits faith and helps make holiness more tangible and accessible. Bonus moment: how photography and dance enabled evangelization in Latin America!
Participation requirements: Free of charge
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 – 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Photography and Artificial Intelligence: The New Revolution
The arrival of AI is reshaping our relationship with images in profound ways. Just as photography did in the 19th century, this new technology stirs fascination, questions, and debate. How can we distinguish a real photograph from an image generated by AI? What are the ethical and cultural implications of these new tools? This workshop will help attendees better understand the unfolding revolution and reflect on our responsibility toward the images of tomorrow.
Participation requirements: Free
Timings: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
In Pursuit of the Details
Throughout the afternoon, participants will have the chance to take part in a photo scavenger hunt.
Ten details from the center will already have been photographed and shown to the participants. Their task will be to roam the center to locate the exact spots where the photos were taken.
Once a detail is found, participants must take a photo of the same element themselves and present it to the game master for validation.
Participation conditions: Free of charge
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Musica Spirituale Ensemble in Concert
Founded in 2014, the ensemble Musica Spirituale sprang from Dorothée Perreau and Michel Poillot’s wish, as seasoned liturgical musicians and professional performers, to restore sacred vocal works of the Baroque era to the prayerful context for which they were originally composed.
Conditions of participation: Free
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 3:15 PM to 6:30 PM
Workshop: "Photography and Artificial Intelligence — The New Revolution"
The arrival of AI is profoundly reshaping our relationship with images. Like the invention of photography in the 19th century, this new technology sparks fascination, questions, and debate. How can we tell a real photograph from an image generated by AI? What are the ethical and cultural implications of these new tools? This workshop will help us better understand the ongoing revolution and reflect on our responsibility toward the images of tomorrow.
Participation terms: Free
Schedules: Sunday, September 20, 2026 – 3:15 PM to 4:00 PM, 4:15 PM to 5:00 PM
Workshop: "Images in the Service of Faith"
The invention of photography reshaped how we portray the saints. For the first time, some could be photographed while alive, letting believers see their true faces and feel closer to them.
But pictures don’t tell the whole story: each image is crafted to emphasize a specific facet of the saint’s life, personality, or mission. Through a series of examples, this workshop will invite readers to discover how photography conveys faith and helps make holiness more tangible and accessible. Bonus moment: how photography and dance helped evangelization in Latin America!
Participation requirements: Free
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 3:15 PM to 4:00 PM, 4:15 PM to 5:00 PM
Workshop "The Memory of a Territory"
The photograph is a privileged witness to the transformations of a territory. Through old and recent shots, discover the history of the Saclay plateau and the evolution of its landscapes. How does photography help us understand the changes in our environment? What does it tell us about the lives of people yesterday and today? A journey through time to better understand the territory we live in. And also discover the animals that inhabit our plateau.
Participation terms: Free | No reservation required
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 – 3:15 PM to 4:00 PM, 4:15 PM to 5:00 PM
The Memory of a Territory
Photography offers a privileged glimpse into how a territory changes. Through vintage and contemporary images, explore the story of the Saclay plateau and how its landscapes have evolved. How does photography help us grasp the shifts in our environment? What does it reveal about the lives of people from yesterday to today? A time-travel journey to better understand the region we call home, and to glimpse the wildlife that shares our plateau.
Conditions of participation: Free of charge
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 3:15 PM to 5:00 PM
Concert by the Musica Spirituale Ensemble
Founded in 2014, the ensemble Musica Spirituale grew out of Dorothée Perreau and Michel Poillot’s wish — both liturgical musicians and professional musicians — to reframe the sacred vocal works of the Baroque era within the very prayer context for which they were written.
Participation requirements: Free of charge
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Belleville Castle
Valérie Le Meur's retrospective exhibition “Urban Intimacies”
Through her work, Valérie Le Meur invites you into her world and her personal story.
This retrospective, spanning ten years of creation (2016–2026), transports you on an urban voyage between London and New York, guiding you through her paintings and inspirations.
Participation requirements: Free | No reservation required
Hours: Saturday, September 19, 2026 — 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; 2:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. | Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; 2:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Storytelling stroll "Tales from Other Times Around Belleville Castle"
As you walk, a relic evokes a story, a tree another, and that’s how this stroll can whisk you back in time and through space.
A suspended moment right at your doorstep, in an exceptional heritage site, with shepherds’ huts, trades that have vanished, fragments of mysterious forests, and strange place names. So, ready to join this narrated ramble?
Participation guidelines: Limited to 30 participants - Free | Reservations required - 01 70 56 52 60, culturel@mairie-gif.fr, https://www.ville-gif.fr
Hours: Saturday, September 19, 2026 — 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM | Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM
Show "Fratello", Bêstîa Company
Two bodies, two voices, two lives bound by the circus.
They push themselves, lift one another, reach for each other, argue, reconnect.
They juggle objects as they juggle their bond, teetering between tenderness and defiance, complicity and tension.
Fratello is a story of brotherhood.
A relationship both obvious and fragile. An acrobatic dance where you learn to trust, to fall together… and most of all, to rise again.
A contemporary circus show built on acrobatic lifts, juggling, unicycle and a healthy dose of humanity.
Spring 2025 premiere as part of the Spring festival.
Show produced by Compagnie Bêstia
Participation conditions: Free | No booking required
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 – 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Hermitage Castle
Hermitage Castle Tour
An iconic piece of Gif's history, the Château de l’Hermitage stands as a striking witness to the early 19th-century leisure culture of Île-de-France, distinguished with the Regional Heritage label.
Discover the story of this elegant bourgeois residence, built in 1831 by Baron de Méneval, Napoleon I’s chief secretary, which became municipal property in 1938.
Participation terms: Free | No reservation required
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM, 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM, 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Val Fleury Castle
Exhibition "From Shadow to Light: Reimagining Abandoned Heritage"
Spotlight on forgotten heritage—the kind you don’t notice. Hidden all around us, swallowed by dense vegetation, where nature has reclaimed its domain, in a silence only interrupted by birdsong.
Old houses, industrial buildings, scientific laboratories or farms, castles and stately homes... places often little known, rich in history, quirky and full of charm, spread across the departments of Essonne, Yvelines and Seine-et-Marne, which we invite you to discover through a photographic exhibition by a collective of heritage enthusiasts and lovers of old stones.
Participation requirements: Free | No reservation required
Schedule: Saturday, September 19, 2026 — 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM | Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 2:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Saint-Rémy Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church
Visit to the Saint-Remi Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church
Blending romantic and Gothic influences, this charming ninth‑century church—rebuilt in the nineteenth century—has regained its original appearance during its latest restoration in the 1980s. Listed on the Additional Inventory of Historic Monuments, it also houses a rich collection of sculpture and remarkable paintings.
Participation terms: Free of charge
Schedule: Saturday, September 19, 2026, 2:00 PM–6:00 PM | Sunday, September 20, 2026, 2:00 PM–6:00 PM
ENS Paris-Saclay
Guided tour of the artworks at ENS Paris-Saclay
Christian Bessy, a research director at CNRS, highlights the rich artistic heritage of ENS Paris-Saclay, whose new building was designed by Renzo Piano’s Atelier. Some 1% artwork pieces date back to the former ENS Cachan, including works by Germaine Richier, Paul Belmondo, Alfred Janniot, and Jacques Villon... Others, more contemporary, come from the recent construction of the new edifice (Jean-Marie Appriou, Tobias Pils, Matali Crasset, Charles de Meaux...). ENS Paris-Saclay invites us to witness the evolution of site-specific art through its collection, a portion of which is installed in its inner garden, a space conducive to contemplation.
Participation conditions: Limited to 30 participants – Booking required | Free – communication@ens-paris-saclay.fr
Timings: Friday, September 18, 2026 — 6:00 PM ⤏ 7:00 PM
Moon — A Cabinet of Lunar Curiosities
Come discover the Moulon district with dancer and acrobat Bastien Dausse. A five-stop urban walk, Moon invites us to explore futuristic buildings, cutting-edge research centers, and even a farm. conceived as a “lunar cabinet of curiosities,” each scene unfolds with bodies suspended, fragile balances, and devices afloat in zero gravity. Gravity goes off kilter, our bearings waver, and we’re invited to view a transforming Saclay plateau from a fresh viewpoint.
Site-specific outdoor promenade performance.
In the framework of festival Encore les beaux jours (Animakt / Communauté d'agglomération Paris-Saclay) and European Heritage Days.
Participation conditions: Free with reservation - Free | Reservation required - https://scenederecherche.ens-paris-saclay.fr/agenda/moon
Schedule: Saturday, September 19, 2026 — 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
Dates and Opening Time
From September 19, 2026 to September 20, 2026
Location
Gif-sur-Yvette Town Hall Park
Square de la Mairie
91190 Gif sur Yvette
Route planner
Accessibility info
