Paris, France, Other -
French Statue Rubbing

For your section on statue rubbing -- it ain't America, but thought you'd get a kick out of it. It's the grave of Victor Noir, a journalist murdered in 1870 and buried in the Pere Lachais cemetery in Paris (ya know, just down the sidewalk from Jim Morrison...). Anyway, his statue is said to hold powers of fertility, and over the years women who wanted to conceive children have come to the cemetery and rubbed it in strategic places in hopes of increasing their chances of getting pregnant. According to a local, it was blocked off from the public for a while because the rubbing got out of control. But it's now available again for all who might want to touch it. Besides the crotch, the hot spots to rub are the face, toes, and heart. We should all get so much action while we are alive. [Wade Jeffrey, 08/30/2005]