Those Historical Oar Things

I guess that is the best description I currently have for these these:

I guess they are called "Panneau Historie de Paris" Or "History of Paris Panels," so not really much more unique.
They are actually meant to look like a ship's paddle. This was not to mark Paris as a river founded city, but to give homage to the Latin motto of Paris "Fluctant nec mergitur" which translates to "battered by the waves, but never capsized." I think that this is extremely symbolic of the city. History has repainted Paris time and time again, and the city paddles on.

As we all know, these paddles are placed around the city near historical monuments. They were ordered by Jacques Chirac (the then current mayor) made 767 paddles in 1992,  all surrounding historical monuments.

I thought that after 23 years the paddles look really good, but apparently they want to switch them out for "interactive kiosks"