LOCALITY · CITY · FRANCE
Paris
The capital of France, named in a historical source recorded by SmellBook.
What SmellBook records here
One smell is linked to Paris by a checked source, a historical one. Each says what one source studied or wrote, not what Paris smells like today.
Old Church Historical source
In the first volume of his Tableau de Paris (1782), Louis-Sébastien Mercier writes that a cadaverous odour could be smelled in almost all the churches of Paris, blaming the dead buried there, and adds that some held it to be the mouldy, cellar-like smell of the great stone buildings mistaken for the odour of death.
- The claim’s words for the place
- “almost all the churches of Paris”
- When
- a source published 1782; that is the latest time it can describe. Not a statement about today.
- Source
- Tableau de Paris, tome I (book), p. 128
- Checked claim
- The smell of Paris churches in 1782
A smell is linked to a locality or tradition only when a VERIFIED claim, resting on a registered scientific or historical source, names that place or tradition in its own words. A link from a historical source is bound to the time its passage describes and says nothing about the place today. How a place or festival is commonly said to smell is cultural description, not evidence, and is not shown as a link.
Traditions recorded here
No tradition is recorded for this locality yet.
Open research questions
What a source would need to answer before SmellBook can connect smells here. These are questions, not findings.
- Historical and archival record. Which smells in Paris are described in checked historical records besides the 1782 passage on its churches, and from which periods? Evidence sought: historical.
First source survey (2026-10-03): Partly answered: the first volume of Mercier's Tableau de Paris (1782) describes an odour in almost all the churches of Paris (The smell of Paris churches in 1782), linked to Old Church as historically documented in Paris in 1782. It describes the churches, not the city's air. No wider search has been made yet.
Where it is
Paris, France: 48.8567° N, 2.3522° E. Open on OpenStreetMap
Coordinates as stated by the public record Wikidata item Q90, checked on by an automated SmellBook check.
For researchers and citation
Identity references
- Wikidata item Q90 · checked against the public record on 2026-10-19 by an automated SmellBook check
Permanent identifier smellbook:locality:paris · Graph record (JSON)
Cite as SmellBook. (2026). Paris (locality). SmellBook knowledge graph, dataset release of 2026-10-25. smellbook:locality:paris. https://smellbook.com/localities/paris
Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the dataset release of 2026-10-19.
Localities and traditions are recorded with references to public records. A smell is connected to them only through a registered source; descriptions of how a place or festival is commonly said to smell are not presented as evidence. Reference checks marked unchecked have not yet been fetched and saved by a SmellBook check run.