Paris no doubt has many charms that London cannot match. As the pound slumps against the euro these may be magnified. Wine, for one, will be crossing the Channel at a premium, raising costs for the more sybaritic Londoners.

Whether that, and the string of inducements outlined on Wednesday by Manuel Valls, the French premier, will be enough to prompt an exodus of bankers from the City of London in the aftermath of Brexit, is another matter. HSBC has talked of moving 1,000 employees to Paris, where it has a large subsidiary. There may also be some pressure on the big French banks to repatriate London-based operations too.

A prolonged recession in the UK, accompanied by the decline of sterling or a withdrawal from the single market, could inevitably make London a less attractive place for global finance and Paris is one financial centre that would be set to benefit.