Metronome: A History of France to the Rhythm of the Paris Métro, Lorànt Deutsch

Don't expect a pontificating guide; Lorànt Deutsch shares his discoveries in a book that reflects his style: fast-paced, entertaining, and unexpected. Did you know that the original Lutetia was not in Paris, but in Nanterre? That the bodies of the last Gallic fighters massacred by the Romans are buried under the Eiffel Tower? That France's first cathedral is located, almost intact, under the car park of a modern building in the 5th arrondissement? Behind the modest walls of rue Saint-Benoît, admire the defensive tower built by Philip II in the 13th century, visit the bistro owner who stores his wines in a cell from the Bastille, miraculously saved from destruction, and guess who is still hidden, even today, under the statue of Henry IV on the Pont-Neuf: you will return from your journey wide-eyed, captivated by revelations you never even suspected.