- It was at the Ecole Normale in Paris that a chemist named Louis Pasteur
discovered parity when he found that sodium ammonium tartrate crystals existed
in both a left-hand and a right-hand form, each of which was optically active
but in the opposite directions.
- There are many French counts but the French can't count. Observe the
following sequence: Louis XVI, Napoleon I, Louis XVIII, Napoleon III.
- Speaking of Napoleon I, he was the first ever European monarch to be
formally trained as a mathematician. Well, as an engineer, which is an applied
mathematician. He spent 5 years at the military college of Brienne in the
early 1780's. I don't know the curriculum at Brienne, but considering that
Napoleon was commissioned as an artillery officer, he probably received what
was the 18th Century's closest equivalent to an engineering diploma.
- There exists in France a secret society known as the "Prieure de Sion". It
claims to have been founded during the First Crusade and to have been the
parent of the Knights Templars. (Other people claim it is an elaborate hoax.
Take your pick). In the Bibliotheque National there is the Dossiers Secrets,
deposited there by the Prieure de Sion, which among other things gives a
complete list of the Grandmasters of the Prieure. Among them is one Isaac
Newton. (Others include Leonardo da Vinci, Robert Boyle, Vcitor Hugo, and
Claude Debussy).
- Finally, the very air of Paris is mathematical (or at least statistical).
Starting in 1823 Laplace used barometric observations made at the Paris
Observatory to try to detect lunar tides in the Earth's atmosphere, using as a
tool techniques based on what we know call the Normal Distribution.