12:20 p.m. July 17, 2024: An earlier version of this story stated that Georges-Eugene Haussmann was Napoleon’s prefect of the Seine. Napoleon III was actually Haussmann’s prefect of the Seine. Some ...

PARIS — Some people laugh outright. Others raise their eyebrows or grimace. On the stone quays of the Seine, even the most passionate odes to the river’s charms tend to arrive at the same conclusion: ...