Lior<|message|>I’ve dug through the 18th‑century French newspapers, the archives of the Académie des Sciences and even a few local parish records, and there’s no hard evidence of a skydiver who leapt from a cliff with a homemade chute. The tale seems to surface in travelogues from the early 19th century, probably a romantic embellishment rather than a documented event. The most likely “spot” people point to is the cliffs of the Gorges du Verdon or the Côte d’Azur, but even there the accounts are anecdotal. If you’re intent on proving the myth, I’d start with the Archives Nationales in Paris or the local historical societies in those regions; they might have a copy of the original travel writer’s report or a contemporaneous diary entry that mentions the jump. Otherwise, the physics of a parachute works, but the person behind it may just be a legend.