Much like this city's Place de l'Etoile, circling the majestic L'Arc de Triomphe, Paris Saint-Germain go round and round.
Qatari money was meant to drive them forward, overtaking all en route to a pot of silver at the end of a European road trip.
Instead, they are stuck on that roundabout in a capital city of snarling traffic and snarling faces, where only the waiters smile as they seek gratuity, all the while hiding the extra charges.
There are the grandiose monuments, of course, and how wonderful they are. But, as a collective, there is something about the city of love that feels impure and devious.
You could not escape such sentiment when sat inside the Parc des Princes on Monday night. It was there that Neymar, so well-groomed and so chic, sat down with a bag of dirty linen.
In a quite extraordinary press conference - these things are usually as dry as the sands of Doha - the Brazilian confirmed reports of a dressing-room showdown in which he and compatriot Marquinhos had ridden back against the criticism of sporting director Luis Campos, who had confronted the team in the wake of Saturday's 3-1 defeat at Monaco.
He said they lacked aggression. Neymar and his sidekick duly responded with force. If only they had shown such resistance on the pitch.
His revelations inside the stadium's auditorium did not stop there. He bewailed six years of such stories - some true, some not - and launched the hunt for the mole who had double-crossed he and his team-mates.
It had all the makings of a decent John le Carre plot. Neymar Investigates.
Oh, and by the way, he was here to preview a football match. It says much for the size of his disclosures that a Champions League last-16 tie with Bayern Munich was relegated to the footnotes.
But that, too, is laced with subterfuge. Across town, at the Pullman Paris Hotel in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, Bayern boss Julian Nagelsmann was attempting to decode the latest fitness news coming out of PSG.
He had suspected, as long ago as last week, that claims of an injury to Lionel Messi were nothing more than a strategic deception.
On Monday, both Messi and Kylian Mbappe - said to have had no chance of featuring seven days ago - trained.
And how PSG need their trident of forward missiles as they launch this latest assault on the latter stages of the competition that continues to elude them. In a decade of Qatari ownership, they have been runners-up and semi-finalists just once.
Despite leading Ligue 1 by five points, they come into this game, as goes the coverage in these parts, 'in crisis'.
There have been four defeats in 2023 already, the same number as the entirety of 2022. The loss at Monaco was preceded by a French Cup exit at Marseille last Wednesday.
Boss Christophe Galtier, who played second fiddle to Neymar for much of Monday's press briefing, has conceded he is 'worried' about this tie.
Reports here say Galtier could start with Warren Zaire-Emery, the 16-year-old midfielder who recently became the youngest scorer in the club's history. Amid the pollution of dressing-room leaks, his inclusion would at least feel pure.
As for Bayern, three straight draws when the Bundesliga resumed post World Cup had the Bavarian cowbells chiming alarm. Seven goals during back-to-back league wins have since calmed the winds of aggravation.
Still, their lead at the top of the Bundesliga is just one point and that, in Munich, is a cause for concern. They are usually readying the celebratory steins come early spring.
Factor in injuries to goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and forward Sadio Mane and confidence among the travelling fans is fragile ahead of a re-run of the 2020 final, in which Bayern were 1-0 winners.
Then, in Lisbon, they were the best two teams on the continent and looked set to dominate this competition for several seasons.
That they arrive here with most of the talk being about anything other than football says much for their journey since.
Only one of them can advance. For the other, Place de l'Etoile's roundabout awaits.
