I absolutely love the sculpture The Defender of Time by Jacques Monestier. It's an amazing automaton of a man with a sword battling a dragon, a crab and a rooster. It's tucked into a courtyard near the Centre Pompidou and had been broken for over a decade, covered in bird poop. I found it fascinating anyway, and decided to put it in Art Hiding in Paris, having no idea that three months after my book was published, the automaton would be restored to its former glory! At every hour it activates, the man swinging his sword at one of the animals. It's so amazing! And kind of a weird gift since I already liked it, broken as it was.There are also these incredible Art Nouveau erotic tiles that the owners of a building housing a computer supply company near Strasbourg-Saint-Denis found behind some drywall when renovating. It turns out the space was a maison close (brothel) called Aux Belles Poules from the turn of the century until the 1940s. An artist had hand-painted beautiful scenes of Belle Époque and Jazz Age women, along with mosaics all through the bottom floor. When the owners discovered the tiles, they decided to shift their focus, and restore the tiles. Aux Belles Poules is now an event space, but they do these once a month happy hours with a short lecture on the fascinating history of sex work in Paris (in French) coupled with two gorgeous flapper-style singers.