Five places to admire street art with the family in and around Paris

Discovering street art in the streets of Paris is like organizing a visit to a museum. Art history, graphic techniques, architectural concepts: your children will learn a lot in a short time. And what’s more, they’ll be allowed to run and scream!

The Henri-IV tunnel, in Paris 4^e

Detail of the monumental fresco of the “Paris Plage Papeete Tunnel”, in the Henri-IV tunnel, in Paris 4ᵉ. FABE COLLAGE

There’s nothing like a bit of colour and art to transform an anxiety-inducing tunnel into a flying carpet to Tahiti. Contacted in 2023 by the City of Paris as part of Paris Plages with the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games on the horizon, the Urban Art Crew collective, which promotes street art and graffiti in the capital, brought together artists Babs and Sarah Viault to create 800 metres of frescoes in the Henri-IV tunnel, on the banks of the Seine. The artists chose to talk about the Pacific, its fauna and flora and the climate issues that threaten them. Each section of wall therefore tells a story and allows themes such as consumption or ecological awakening to be addressed with children. Renamed “Tunnel Paris Plage Papeete”, the place will keep the works after the Games. Entirely pedestrianized, it is accessible near the Sully-Morand (line 7) or Quai-de-la-Rapée (line 5) metro stations. Good news: a podcast produced by Urban Art Crew telling the behind-the-scenes story of this project can enhance your underground walk.

Tunnel Henri-IV, quai Henri-IV, Paris 4^e. Free access.

Boulevard Vincent-Auriol, in Paris 13^e

The work “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” by the American artist Shepard Fairey known as “Obey”, rue Nationale, in Paris 13ᵉ. HENRI GARAT/PARIS CITY HALL

Welcome to the Champs-Elysées of street art. Walking up Boulevard Vincent-Auriol, which connects the Seine to Place d’Italie, is like getting lost in an open-air museum. The facades of the apartment blocks built in the 1970s serve as a support for very famous creations such as the Marianne by Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (2016), signed by the American artist Shepard Fairey, aka Obey, or the mosaic Dr House in Da House d’Invader, in place on a wall of the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital since 2016. This ambitious project is supported by the town hall of the 13th^e arrondissement and the Itinerrance gallery since 2009. About twenty of the fifty-five works are located around the Nationale metro station, which is also an excellent starting point for a discovery walk. The frescoes are also visible from the above-ground part of metro line 6, just to give you a taste. A family walk along the boulevard will also be offered to you on Sunday, September 22, as part of the Festival du Monde.

You have 57.31% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.