"There is no law in France, it turns out, against the improvement of clocks."

"The capital’s topography was to be transplanted onto the existing villages of Maisons-Laffitte, Sartrouville, Montigny-les-Cormeilles, Herblay, Conflans-Ste-Honorine, Beauchamp and Pierrelaye."

"Naturally, a check of the Boris Bike T&C’s showed that while there is a limit of 24 hours for hiring a bike, and oddly a limit on letting no more than three other people use the bike, there is no geographical or mileage restrictions."

"Return your bike to one of 100 stations perched over 60 meters above the rest of the city, and 15 minutes of free riding is added to your account. [...] Riding uphill is now a power-up."

"France's National Museum of Natural History on Tuesday unveiled the world's first 'plastinated' squid -- a 6.5-metre-long (21.25-feet) deep-sea beast donated by New Zealand and named in honour of a creature featuring in Maori legend."

"[They] set up a secret workshop and lounge in a cavity under the building's famous dome. Under the supervision of [a] professional clockmaker, they pieced apart and repaired the antique clock that had been left to rust in the building since the 1960s."

Hadn't seen this before. Good, sharp, non-stop, dialogue-driven stuff, everything in the foreground, with a great, clipped subtlety to all of the characters.

A French heist film where the half-hour of breaking in and safecracking is played entirely without music or dialogue; no pointless exposition, and everyone just getting on with it. Will probably cast a shadow over every other heist film I see.

"If I went and stood in the indie section of the Virgin megastore, [...] maybe someone would come along and say, 'Ooh, look, it's Jarvis!' If I was really desperate one day and needed to reassure myself that people still knew who I was, I could do that."

Five or ten brief minutes of good parkour, and an hour of nonsensical bomb-defusing videogame plot, including arbitrary end boss. Expected parkour to be more interestingly filmable on a big multi-camera budget; either it isn't, or they just didn't bother.

A trivial bullion heist with some fun setup, a weird chase scene apparently parodying new-fangled in-car police radios, and perhaps the best ending a heist film can have.