Starting with a tantalising mini-history of the Metro – the reason for the kink in the north-south line is because the Académie Française "could not countenance hollow ground beneath their solid feet" – this book uses the system's best-known stations as starting points for exploring a dozen aspects of this endlessly fascinating city.

After leaving Denfert-Rochereau, we stay underground with the hellish catacombs of the Rue d'Enfer, where the dead of Paris were moved from overflowing cemeteries in 1786. Gare du Nord takes us to a Foundling Hospital and the strange fact that "wet nursing was the largest industry in Paris" during the 19th century. Near Trocadero was the home of the eccentric psychiatrist Otto Rank, who was patronised by Anaïs Nin with unsurprising results. ("I knelt before him and offered my mouth.")

St Germain des Prés leads to Sartre and the old gang at Café Flore, which gained the edge over the freezing Deux Magots due to the installation of a stove. At Porte de Clignancourt, we meet the division between the city and the suburbs, which "goes back to the very beginnings of Christianity".

Chatelet-Les Halles takes us to "the gigantic metal stomach" of Les Halles, described in Le Ventre de Paris by Zola (who was possibly murdered). Dallas's tour is so transporting that if you were to read it on the Metro you would almost certainly pass your stop.

Metrostop Paris

By Gregor Dallas

John Murray, £7.99, 240pp