Jean-Aymar Piganiol de la Force (Aurillac, 1673 – Paris, 1753), son of Pierre and of Marguerite Parisot, dame de La Force, was a French man of letters known above all for works of a descriptive geographical character, for which he travelled extensively in France. He held an appointment as royal historiographer, resulting in his Description de la France.

He spent his youth at his mother's family château de La Force at Saint-Simon, Cantal

Saint-Simon, Cantal

Saint-Simon is a commune in the Cantal department in south-central France.The medieval town of Belliac, located near the present-day Saint-Simon, was the birthplace of the prolific scholar Gerbert d'Aurillac, who became Pope Sylvester II, the first of the French popes.-Population:-References:*...

 on the little River Jordanne, near Aurillac

Aurillac

Aurillac is a commune in the Auvergne region in south-central France, capital of the Cantal department.Aurillac's inhabitants are called Aurillacois, and are also Cantaliens or Cantalous in Occitan....

, where he studied.

Piganiol de la Force for four decades was the tutor to the young pages of the comte de Toulouse

Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, Comte de Toulouse

Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse , duc de Penthièvre , d'Arc, de Châteauvillain and de Rambouillet , , was the son of Louis XIV and of his mistress Madame de Montespan...

, and as a young man wrote a set of Mémoires des intendants pour l’instruction du duc de Bourgogne (1698)

Selected works

• Nouvelle description du château et parc de Versailles et de Marly (1702)
• Nouvelles descriptions historiques et géographiques de la France, 1715, in 5 volumes, and 1751-1753, in 15 volumes
• Nouveau voyage en France, 1724, 2 volumes
• Description de la ville de Paris et de ses environs, 1742, 10 volumes.