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“Veni, verdi Vinci”: We came, we greened, we got Vinci [Vinci is the name of a French company that runs underground car parks in and around Paris.– Trans): in 2015 many teams responded to the “Ré-inventer Paris” call for innovative projects, but few of us imagined at the time how quickly this would become a model for the genre. Today, these “Reinventing” procedures are flourishing in all kinds of locations ( “Réinventer Châlons”) and on an ever-larger scale ( “Réinventer la Seine,” “Inventer la métropole”), with the result that we are seeing the development of a veritable “French mash-up.” This idyllic landscape, with its after-sales service and international promotion ( “Réinventer le monde”) milks the language of kindliness, conviviality and leisure, and the liberal values of flexibility, impermanence and reversibility. But behind these glistening artifices of communication is a thick forest of questions touching on the shifting balance of power between the public and private spheres, the predominance of the concept of innovation in evaluation criteria and the reduction of sustainable development to gimmick status. With these procedures now taking over public space itself ( “Réinventer les places,” “faire”), there is an urgent need for critical debate involving the public, professionals and decision-makers.