The former 16C bell tower of the church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, which was destroyed in 1802, was converted into a weather station (hence the statue of Blaise Pascal, who carried out his experiments on air pressure here in 1648) and then a factory for making hunting shot. Bought by the city at the request of the prefect Haussmann, it was restored and modified on numerous occasions between 1853 and 1937. It was last restored in 2008.