Before you read on
- When you race
- 12–20 December 2026
- How many nights to book
- 3 nights
- Who this race suits
- A race with a metro station at the gate, in a city that needs no other reason.
- Nearest airport to the venue
- Charles de Gaulle (CDG), About 64 min by RER B and metro, with two changes
- Cost for the weekend
- EUR 790 (USD 857) per person, Flights and race entry.
On this page
Should you race here?
A metro station at the gate of the largest hall in France, in the middle of Paris in December.
Reasons to
- Line 12 stops at the entrance and two tram lines run along the boulevard outside.
- The venue is inside the city, so the Eiffel Tower is 2.5km away and the Left Bank fifteen minutes.
- An ordinary meal is about EUR 15 and a three-course bouillon under EUR 20.
- Eurostar and TGV put Paris within a few hours of most of western Europe.
Reasons not to
- Eight hours of daylight, 2.5°C (37°F) overnight and 88% humidity.
- Charles de Gaulle is 64 minutes away by public transport, with two changes.
- Orelsan plays ten nights at the Accor Arena across race week, which takes rooms everywhere.
Conditions on the day
FITNESS PARK HYROX PARIS runs December 12th, 2026 to December 20th, 2026 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Here is what that specific window is like on the ground.
The catch
Cold, damp and dark by five
8°C (46°F) by day, 3°C (37°F) at night
Paris in mid-December
- The December average reaches 7.7°C (46°F) by day and falls to 2.5°C (37°F) at night.
- Humidity holds at 88%, and that is why a Paris December feels colder than the number.
- About 62mm of rain falls across eleven days, mostly as drizzle rather than downpours.
- Daylight runs 08:35 to 16:54, so the lights are on by five.
- Daylight
- Dark
- Bar height is temperature
What racing here is like
Your race is here
Paris Expo Porte de Versailles
December 12th, 2026
FITNESS PARK HYROX PARIS
- Everything below describes this building first, and the other for comparison
The venue at a glance
- Address
- 1 Place de la Porte de Versailles, 15th arrondissement, Paris
- Nearest station
- Porte de Versailles, metro line 12 and trams T2 and T3a (at the gate)
- Parking
- Car parks on site. The daily rate is not published on the venue's access page.
- From the nearest hotel
- 2 to 10 min from Hotels at Porte de Versailles
- Altitude
- 35m above sea level, low enough to make no difference to your race.
- Bag drop
- Hyrox has not published the bag drop arrangement for Paris.
- Supporters
- Hyrox has not published spectator ticketing for Paris.
Paris has moved building, moved season, and grown from a single day into the best part of a week. Where you race, and when, changes the day more than most people expect.
Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, your race is in this building
The largest exhibition centre in France, on the southern edge of the fifteenth arrondissement, inside the city rather than out by an airport.
Known for. The Paris agricultural show, the motor show, VivaTech and the book fair, and a rooftop farm that is the largest in Europe.
The building. Opened in 1923 on the line of the old city wall and rebuilt in stages since, most recently with a new Pavilion 6 in 2022.
Race day and start times
The thing that shapes your travel is not the race date. It is when you find out what time you are racing on it.
Hyrox links individual start times on the event page about three days before the race. A provisional schedule goes up earlier.
What to bring
At Paris Expo, and only on the day you compete. Registration opens 90 minutes before the first wave of your division.
You do not bring a chip. You collect the ankle strap at check-in, wear it for the race, and hand it back after the line.
What your wristband does not cover
You are given a wristband at check-in. Hyrox has not published what the Paris one admits you to. Check-in is open only on the day you race, so do not assume it covers a second day.
Getting there on the morning
Metro line 12 to Porte de Versailles. The first trains run around half past five, which covers every wave.
What you need to book
Before you book
Book flights and the last night around the provisional schedule, not around a wave you have not been given.
If Hyrox cancels or postpones the event, its terms do not cover your flights or your room. Check the cancellation deadline on both before you pay for either.
Flying into the city
Orly is south of the city and much closer to Porte de Versailles, and Beauvais is 85km away despite what the ticket says.
Search flights to ParisBy train
Check train times and faresSomewhere to stay
The closest beds go first, and those are the ones that matter on race morning.
Compare hotels near the venueSomething to do with the rest of the weekend
Most people fly in for one race and see nothing. The day before is dead time if you do not plan it.
Tours and tickets in ParisSomewhere to put your bag
Flying out the same evening? This is the difference between a good afternoon and hauling a kit bag around a city.
Left luggage in ParisYour entry
Sold by Hyrox, one ticket per division per day. We earn nothing from this link and include it because you need it.
Official Hyrox entriesEstimate weekend cost
| Item | Local currency | USD |
|---|---|---|
| Three nights Nights near the venue | EUR 630 | $684 |
| Travel, airport and around the city | EUR 50 | $54 |
| Eating, three days | EUR 110 | $119 |
| One athlete plus one supporter | EUR 790 | $857 |
Getting to Paris
Charles de Gaulle is about 64 minutes from the venue by RER and metro, for EUR 15.
RER B from Charles de Gaulle
About 64 minutes to the venue with changes at Saint-Michel and Montparnasse, for EUR 15. Long, and the only sensible public route from CDG.
Orly, if you can
Orly is south of the city and far closer to Porte de Versailles than Charles de Gaulle. Tram T7 and one metro change does it in well under an hour.
Entry requirements
Quick tip
Orly is far closer and far quicker. If you have the choice of airport, take it.
Getting to the venue
The fifteenth arrondissement around the venue is residential and cheap by Paris standards. The Left Bank proper is fifteen minutes on line 12.
Line 12 stops at the gate and two tram lines run along the boulevard outside, so the venue is as easy to reach as anywhere in Paris. Orly is much closer than Charles de Gaulle and the tram T7 plus one metro change will get you there in well under an hour.
Where to stay
The fifteenth arrondissement around the venue is residential, well served and cheaper than the postcard half of Paris. Line 12 runs from the gate to the Left Bank in fifteen minutes.
Open in Google Maps · Get directions
1. Hotels at Porte de Versailles
Business hotels built for the fairs, averaging about USD 228 a night. Closest to the gate and dull in a useful way.
2. Hotels in Saint-Germain and the Latin Quarter
On line 12 or a change away, with the bookshops, the cafes and the Luxembourg gardens. The nicest base.
3. Hotels in Le Marais
Narrow medieval streets, galleries and the best small restaurants. It is the furthest out and the liveliest in the evening.
The Orelsan residency runs ten nights across race week and fills rooms all over the city. The fifteenth is the least affected and the closest.
Neighbourhoods worth the commute
Paris is small and the metro is dense, so everything below is twenty-five minutes or less from the gate.
| Area | To the venue | Why | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| The fifteenth | 5 to 15 min on foot or one stop | The largest and least visited arrondissement, residential and well fed, with the venue at its southern edge. | |
| Saint-Germain-des-Prés | about 15 min by metro | Literary cafes, galleries and the Luxembourg gardens, straight up line 12 from the venue. | |
| The Latin Quarter | about 20 min by metro | Student streets, bookshops and the Panthéon. Cheaper than Saint-Germain and busier at night. | |
| Le Marais | about 25 min by metro | Medieval lanes on the Right Bank, with the best small restaurants and the Picasso museum. | |
| Montmartre | about 18 min by metro | A hill with a basilica on it and a village underneath. Line 12 runs there from the venue without a change. |
Eating before and after
The night before a race is not the night for the best meal of your trip, which is harder discipline than it sounds in a city this good at food.
The fifteenth, around the venue
Bistros, bakeries and brasseries on Rue du Commerce and Rue de Vaugirard, ten minutes from the gate, all serving from seven. Convenient and genuinely good.
Saint-Germain
Fifteen minutes up line 12, with brasseries that serve all evening. More expensive and a better walk back.
Paris eats well at every price, and the cheap end is where the best value is.
Bouillon Chartier
A bouillon from 1896 with waiters who write the bill on the paper tablecloth, serving a proper three courses for under twenty euros. You queue, you share a table, and you cannot book.
A neighbourhood bistro in the fifteenth
The arrondissement the venue sits in is residential and full of bistros that live on locals, not visitors. About fifteen euros for a plate, and nobody will rush you.
Race day supplies
The practical failures that spoil a race weekend are almost never the training. They are forgetting the gels, or carrying a kit bag around a city for six hours.
Pack list
- A warm waterproof layer. It is 2.5°C (37°F) overnight at 88% humidity, with eleven rain days in the month.
- Shoes you can walk a long way in. Paris is best covered on foot and the metro stairs add up.
- A card that works on contactless. Paris transport ticketing has largely gone that way.
Quick tips
- Buy a Navigo day pass at EUR 12.30. It covers every zone, including both airports.
- Several national museums are free on the first Sunday of the month, and correspondingly full.
The fifteenth is a real neighbourhood with pharmacies, bakeries and a Monoprix. Nothing here needs planning.
The last race in Paris
Porte de Versailles is a recent addition to the Hyrox calendar, so there is little previous form here to pass on.
What happened
The last edition, in short.
- The site has seven pavilions over several levels, so check the pavilion number before you pick a gate.
- Porte de Versailles is on metro line 12 and two tram lines, at the entrance.
What it means for you
How your race differs from that one.
- Orelsan is playing a ten-night residency at the Accor Arena, including both race days.
- Eight hours of daylight, and the overnight average is 2.5°C (37°F) at 88% humidity.
What else is on that weekend
Christmas in Paris, and a ten-night residency across the river from you.
| What | When | Where | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orelsan, ten nights at the Accor Arena | 9 to 20 December, including the 11th and 12th | Accor Arena, Bercy | Both race days. Twenty thousand a night in the twelfth arrondissement, which is across the city from Porte de Versailles but takes rooms everywhere. |
| Jean-Louis Aubert | 13 December | Paris La Défense Arena | Sunday night out at La Défense. Nothing to do with the fifteenth. |
| The Christmas markets and illuminations | Through December | Tuileries, La Défense and the grands magasins | The department store windows on Boulevard Haussmann draw queues all weekend. The Tuileries market is the big one. |
| Sunday at the museums | Check the date | The national museums | Several are free on the first Sunday of the month, which in December means crowds at the Louvre and the Orsay. |
What to see
Written for someone racing tomorrow, not a tourist with a week. Each entry says how far it is, because some of these are worth a longer trip and some are not.
The Eiffel Tower
Two and a half kilometres from the venue, and the stairs to the second floor cost EUR 3.80, which is a fifth of the lift and better exercise than queueing.
The Musée d'Orsay
The Impressionists, hung in a railway station that was nearly demolished. Smaller than the Louvre, better organised, and the right size for an afternoon.
Sainte-Chapelle
Fifteen windows of thirteenth-century glass in one upper room, which is most of the surviving medieval stained glass in the world. It takes twenty minutes and it is worth the queue.
The Louvre
Too big to see, so pick two wings and leave. EUR 22 for EEA visitors and EUR 32 for everyone else, and book a slot before you travel.
What to do
The Coulée Verte
Four and a half kilometres of park built on a disused railway viaduct from Bastille eastward, thirty years before New York had the idea. Free, flat and nearly empty in December.
Marché d'Aligre
A covered market and a street market side by side, where Parisians actually shop. Free to walk through and about an hour, best before eleven.
A municipal pool
Paris runs around forty public pools and an entry is EUR 3.50, which is the cheapest useful thing in the city. Several are art deco and listed.
Versailles
Forty minutes on the RER C from the Left Bank. The gardens are free and in December they are grey, empty and better than in July.
Raced here? Tell us about it.
Anything you wish you had known. It goes into this guide for the next person, and most of them have never done a Hyrox.
Things people find useful
- How early you really needed to arrive
- What caught you out
- What the hall was like inside
- Where your supporters watched from
- Anything good you did in the city
Not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Hyrox. HYROX is a trademark of its owner, used only to describe the races discussed.
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Last updated November 7th, 2026.