Curiosités de Paris

There is such poetry in the old gaslamp and the tire protector! Such charm in enameled plates and brass knockers! For once, ignore the descriptions about Notre-Dame and the Invalides: this guide offers to make us discover or re-discover the "minute treasures" of the city of Paris, those that neither the tourists nor the residents notice anymore. Twenty-seven themed chapters allow us to identify the last operational gaz street lamp, at the sentier du Tir, in Malakoff; one of the 358 wells (there used to be 30 000!) or one of the 83 water pumps that are still visible. The final chapter, "What is it for?" gives details on increasingly mysterious elements: sand boxes, the slabs to access quarries or the five lava stones on which the scaffold was placed for public executions, rue de Charonne…

• Curiosités de Paris by Dominique Lesbros, Parigramme, 2012, 240 p., €22