This video, recorded by Wall Street Journal Science columnist Robert Le Hotz a year ago, lays out very much what happened to this city.

FORBES: What If Mike Bloomberg Is Right And A Climate Change Nightmare Is Here?

It is home to one of Europe's most exclusive (not to mention expensive) golf clubs, the Robert Trent Jones-designed Le Prince de Provence.

FORBES: Provencal Retreat

Monumental and dramatic combining the influences of Robert Mallet-Stevens, Donald Judd and Le Corbusier the pieces, though spectacular in an Art Brut sort of way, are not exactly what you would call warm and cozy.

WSJ: Designer Rick Owens's Paris Home | WSJ. Magazine May 2013