Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris contains the graves of many famous people, including Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison. One person you may not have heard of, however, is Victor Noir. It is, in fact, his monument rather than his memory which draws people to his final resting place and for reasons you may not automatically associate with a cemetery.
You may have already noticed that much of his face is the familiar grey-green of oxidized bronze you would expect from a monument dating from 1891 (Noir died in 1870). However, the lips and the nose are unaccountably shiny. Victor Noir’s mouth and nose are regularly caressed and kissed. Yet the host of women who descend upon his tombstone have more than Victor’s face in mind when they visit. Despite only the faintest trace of a smile across it, Victor Noir is, it seems, still very pleased to see you.
The bronze sculpture has a very noticeable protrusion of some prominence in the trouser department. Whether or not this is a reflection of Victor’s reputation while alive it has certainly afforded him one post mortem. Victor’s monument has become one of France’s more unusual fertility symbols.
It is believed that if a woman kisses Victor on the lips and then rubs that bulge in his trousers then her fertility will be much enhanced and that a baby will follow soon after (the getting of which, according to the legend, will be even more blissful than usual). Single ladies in search of a man need not worry either: a furtive but friendly frottage with Monsieur Noir will ensure a husband within the year. From the looks of all that French polish, it seems that a lot of women believe the story.
There is, of course, payment. Each visitor to Victor’s recumbent form must place a flower in to his hat or hand to thank him for his time. The sculpture, which portrays Victor prone, his hat fallen to the ground, gives some clue to the manner in which death approached him – rather unexpectedly.
Victor Noir was a French political journalist during the time of the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III (which lasted from 1852 – 1870). The editor of his newspaper had been challenged to a duel by Prince Pierre Bonaparte after the publication of an article which was rather disparaging about the prince’s great uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte. Prince Pierre challenged the editor, Paschal Grousset, to a duel, despite the fact that his great uncle had been dead almost fifty years.
Grousset accepted and dispatched his seconds (one of whom was Noir) to arrange a time and a date with Prince Pierre who then, following an altercation, duly dispatched Victor Noir to the great hereafter. The truth of what exactly had caused this outrage in the streets was never fully discovered but the courts sided with the prince, accepting his story that Noir had taken umbrage at being called a lackey of Grousset and had struck the prince (after which, of course, he was left with no choice other than to gun him down in the street).
Over 100,000 people attended Noir’s funeral and his death pricked many a republican in to action against the Emperor’s regime. There was violence on the streets of a number of French cities but a more liberal constitution was quickly voted in by a plebiscite and further bloodshed was avoided. Although the hopes of the republicans seemed to have vanished the Emperor was in fact overthrown within nine months.
Noir’s body was taken to Père Lachaise Cemetery twenty one years after his death and the monument we see here was erected (not to put too much of a fine point on it). Since then his has become one of the most visited graves in the cemetery. To keep his face, groin and feet so shiny and nickel clean it is estimated that many thousands of women have taken a surreptitious joyride atop his recumbent, bronze form.
Dalou, the sculptor, was perhaps wrong in portraying just that flicker of a smile on Victor Noir’s face: a smug grin would, perhaps, have been more appropriate.
First Image Credit Flickr User MB Schlemmer
5 January 2019
Victor Noir: Still Pleased to See You (Even in Death)
Labels:
Cemetery
,
France
,
French
,
Funny
,
Grave
,
Journalist
,
Paris
,
Pere Lachaise
,
Sculpture with an erection
,
Statue
,
Statue with an erection
,
Victor Noir
Give a Gift
If you enjoyed this article, please consider making a gift to help Kuriositas to continue to bring you fascinating features, photographs and videos.
Follow Kuriositas on the socials
More articles from Kuriositas
-
Why the Panda is Black and WhiteThis is a superbly created piece of animation which captures the imagination. The world is monochrome until an invisible hand starts to ...
-
Lofoten – Arctic Circle AnomalyThe archipelago of Lofoten in Norway is north of the Arctic Circle. Yet throughout the year it has temperatures which belie its posi...
-
Fly Geyser – Not Quite of this WorldThey look as if they were taken on another planet, or at least on the set of a new and very expensive science fiction movie. Yet these pi...
-
The Lady and The ReaperAn old lady is nearing the end of her days and she longs to be with the husband she has lost. So, when death pays her a visit on nigh...
-
The Goat Tower - A Caprine CondominiumWhat do you do when you own a group of Swiss Mountain Goats but there isn’t anywhere for them to climb? The answer that South African far...
-
The Mysterious Moeraki BouldersImage Credit Flickr User geoftheref If you go down to Koekohe beach in New Zealand you can be sure of a big surprise. In front of you, scat...
-
Skellig Michael – Mysterious Monastery in the AtlanticNine miles off the coast of County Kerry in the west of Ireland there are two small rocky islands peeking out of the Atlantic Ocean. The l...
-
Hobbiton: Sheep 1, Hobbits 0Image Credit Flickr User Rob & Jules Matamata in New Zealand was the place chosen to film the Hobbiton scenes of the Lord of the Rin...
-
Pamukkale – Turkey’s Cotton CastleImage Credit Flickr User Miquitos In Turkish the name literally means Cotton Castle and it is easy to see why it was given that. Yet this ...
-
Spring!Image Credit Flickr User Philipp Hilpert It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want -...