Au paradis des fantômes (In the Paradise of Ghosts) is a short surrealist play featuring historical and legendary figures — Heron of Alexandria, Leonardo da Vinci, Albertus Magnus, Regiomontanus, Pierre Jacquet-Droz and others — debating amidst all the imaginary or real automata they have built. It was written by Benjamin Péret after reading the monumental study by Alfred Chapuis and Édouard Gélis, Le Monde des automates (Neuchâtel, 1928, 2 volumes).

First published in the journal Minotaure, the play was republished in 1938 and was the subject of a limited edition in collaboration with the Catalan artist Joan Miró (1893-1983).

In a dusty underground passageway of the Palais des Papes in Avignon, several historical and legendary inventors discuss the automatons they have built. Each one talks about their inventions, dreams or utopian visions: a bronze fly to chase away real flies, a hydraulic theatre, giant automata with colossal voices preaching peace, mechanical lions and magic apples, two metal heads with superhuman voices, and an automaton that knows every language.

Suddenly, a human automaton—the robot—appears. The robot knocks over all the characters and throws Jaquet-Droz to the ground, just as he was explaining that the word written on a sheet of paper by his writing automaton was ‘marvellous’.