“Useless Atlas of Paris” by Vincent Périat, a successful crossing – Libération

Direction of the wind, angling and other mischief, a hundred cards to look at Paris differently.

Released September 26, 2024, the useless Atlas of Paris was not for himself given his success. In the ranking of independent Datalib bookstores, it remains in the race three months after hitting the tables, with an honorable 19th place. Unclassifiable and intriguing, he undoubtedly embodied one of the ideal gifts to give for Christmas, between the beautiful book and the nice hoax. There is nothing fantastic about the idea: we have all seen unusual atlases of Paris, “secret Paris” or other “underground Paris”. This does not list the longest street or the extraordinary garden hidden from passers-by. It is much more iconoclastic: Direction of the wind, orientation of the streets, disappeared islands, fishing, beautiful views, groups of young people, oddballs, provincials or addresses of Baudelaire (more than forty!). At the end of the hundred useless maps compiled by Vincent Périat, a forty-year-old florist, his sources are scrupulously mentioned, often from atlases (the map of Parisian Vacheries comes, for example, from theAtlas of Parisians from the Revolution to the present day), online surfing, reading “deadening” et “lazy”.

Where is the oldest basketball court in the world?

The useless Atlas of Paris flatters the taste for detail and anecdote. Mazette: “the immense Lebanese cedar of the Jardin des Plantes was brought from England in the hat of the botanist Bernard de Jussieu” (card No. 009). Did you know that Paris was partially paved with wood until the beginning of the 20th century? He's staying