Archibald: Paris facades

You walk past them every day. A wrought-iron balcony, a door older than the Revolution, a shopfront whose sign outlived every trade behind it. Archibald tells you what they are. Open the app in the street: it shows the facades around you, with their history, written and checked. The stories are carried on board: they read without a network, in the metro or halfway up a hill. The guided walks take you across a neighbourhood: medieval Paris, the covered passages, the Art Nouveau of Auteuil, Molière from one bank to the other. Or wander: Archibald points out the handsome facades as you pass, and keeps the trace of your walk. What you keep fits in a notebook: the facades you want to see again, in your own words. A notebook travels by link or QR code, from one phone to another. Under each story, a label gathers what the sources say: the historic monument listing, the architect, the digs beneath the facade, where the street's name comes from, its plaques, and sometimes what is protected inside. The stories also read in English, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. At night the app turns a warm brown, and the cat keeps his coat. Everything is free. No account, no sign-up, no advertising. To search around you, the app queries Wikipedia with your coordinates, for the length of the request and with nothing attached that identifies you: it accepts no cookies and keeps no history. It counts which features get used, anonymously, and that can be switched off in the settings. Your walks, your notebooks and your notes stay on your phone. Archibald is a cat, and he minds the lodge of the keeper of Paris.