Stade Robert Bobin

The Essonne Stadium in Bondoufle is built for speed as much as for spectacle. It came out of the ground for the 1994 Jeux de la Francophonie, a multi-sport event that required a venue capable of switching off at a set piece. The architect, Didier Drummond, made the same choice: he designed a stadium with a running track and a grass pitch.

That track is the reason the ground looks different from the football grounds down the road. The stands hold 18,850 people, a capacity that has not shifted since the doors opened in 1994, though the structure was built to expand to 21,500 if the need arose. What is on the stands now is different from what was there then. The club that played here most regularly, Paris FC Women, moved on in 2023. They were followed by the men’s side of FC Fleury 91, who returned for the current season. The Paris Musketeers also took a lease, bringing the European League of Football to the Paris basin. The stadium used to belong to AS Évry until their relegation, but the tenants are not the point; the point is the track and the roof.

The roof shelters one side of the ground. The track runs all the way round, and on match days the players use it to warm up before they come out onto the grass. They switch on when the sun goes down, turning the grass a bright green against the darkening sky. The stadium is managed by the departmental council, which renamed it last year to secure a long-term tenant. The building is functional, not a temple. It was built for athletics, and the athletics track is still there, waiting for the next championship to come through.