SECRET PARIS 8ED Format: Paperback

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, a 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.

After spending a few months in the German capital in 1994 and being blown away by ‘alternative’ Berlin after the fall of the Wall, Thomas Jonglez took a few detours: seven months of back- packing in Latin America, seven months of driving from Beijing to Paris without ever taking a plane, six months with his family between Venice and Rio de Janeiro and across Siberia and the Pacific, three years in Brussels, three years in Paris, seven years in Venice and seven years in Rio de Janeiro ... Returning to the loves of his youth, Thomas moved back to Berlin in 2019. What he found is a city that’s obviously less alternative than it was in the 1990s but still has a particular charm and energy, to which he has paid tribute by publishing, among many other books, the Secret Berlin guide. On his return, he spent two fantastic years wandering the streets of the capital to gather material for his first “secret guide”, written with a friend. For the next seven years he worked in the steel industry until the passion for discovery overtook him. He launched Jonglez Publishing in 2005 and moved to Venice one year later. In 2012, he set off on a six-month family trip: by train from Venice to Pyongyang (North Korea) via Paris, Moscow and Beijing. Next he travelled through Japan, Micronesia, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tahiti, Easter Island, Peru and Bolivia before arriving in Rio de Janeiro, where he spent seven years. He returned to Europe in 2019 and rediscovered the charms of the old continent and his hometown.