Ah, Paris...

Ah, Paris... What can one say about Paris that hasn't already been said before? Let's give it a go.
Paris' Latin motto is "Fluctuat nec mergitur", which means "Tossed by the waves, she does not sink." This seems a pretty safe bet for a city 184 miles from the nearest sea. Unless, of course, the author of the motto was the 16th century sage and clairvoyant Nostradamus who knew something we don't about global warming.

In what is, we believe, a true Catch-22 situation, Paris' Roman antiquities are now under threat from the very organisation set up to preserve them. The National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research was built on the site of the Roman city of Lutetia, and in recent years, they have unearthed Roman baths, bronze chains (for the plug?) ceramics and, quaintly, drawer-handles. I imagine archaeologists of the year 4,000 will find similar artefacts when they excavate on an Ikea site. Frustratingly, the Institute can't house the artefacts they'e found unless they expand their premises - and to do so will obliterate the rest of Lutetia. "Why don't they just move the Institute?" I hear you ask. Go on then, you ask them. They won't listen to us.

La Résidence - THE French Property People