Secret Paris

Winemaking firefighters, a tree in a church, an inverted phallus at a well-known entrance, an atomic bomb shelter under Gare de l'Est, unsuspected traces of former brothels, the patron saint of motorists, royal monograms hidden in the Louvre courtyard, the presentation of Christ's crown of thorns, a prehistoric merry-go-round, a sundial designed by Dalí, war-wounded palm trees, bullet holes at the ministry, religious plants in a priest's garden, a mysterious monument to Freemasonry at the Champ-de-Mars, a solid gold sphere in parliament, a Chinese temple in a parking lot, the effect of the Bièvre river on Parisian geography, a blockhouse in the Bois de Boulogne ... For those who thought they knew Paris well, the city is still teeming with unusual and secret places that are easily accessible.

Auteur

Thomas Jonglez was born and grew up in Paris. At the age of 22 he set out to discover the world, and spent most of 1992 backpacking around South America. Next he bought a one-way ticket to Beijing, from where he decided to make his way back to Paris overland - a trip that took him seven months. On his return, he tirelessly trawled the streets of Paris for material to write his first guidebook, which was published in 1996. After several years with the steel industry, he launched his publishing company in 2003. The first edition of Secret Paris came out in 2007. Ever since, he has regularly strolled around the capital, constantly surprised to discover new secret places in a city he thought he knew so well.