We sometimes prefer to overlook the fact that Paris was bombed in the Second World War, perhaps because it is embarrassing to remember that (unlike the First World War), it was the Allies doing the bombing, in their efforts to weaken the German occupiers. Some histories of the German occupation of Paris in the Second World War barely mention air raids and bomb damage. I was immediately drawn to a book called Abris souterrains de Paris : Refuges oubliés de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale (Underground shelters in Paris: Forgotten refuges from the Second World War) by Gilles Thomas with photographs by Diane Dufraisy-Couraud.