The French grave that doubles as an aphrodisiac

Originally published at: The French grave that doubles as an aphrodisiac | Boing Boing

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caitlin-doughty-tea-death

Indeed, deathling!

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Every human grapples with death in their own way.

Putting the G into rave!

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Why isn’t that teabag, you know, damp?

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If I recall correctly, at one point they put a small railing around the statue to try to prevent further, uh, ‘erosion’ of key areas of the sculpture. It was removed after protest.

Not far from Victor Noir’s tomb is a tomb dedicated to a Spiritist named Allan Kardec. There was a sign on that tomb enjoining Kardec’s followers to stop holding seances and rituals around his tomb. I don’t know if the other residents of Père Lachaise were complaining about the noise, or if the people who run the cemetery are just killjoys, but there we are.

The other ‘problem’ graves in the cemetery belong to Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. Morrison’s grave attracted the kind of fan bad behavior that you might imagine (graffiti, theft, etc.). Wilde’s has a statue by Jacob Epstein that featured what fans of “The Princess Bride” might refer to as TOUS (“Testicles of unusual size? I don’t believe they exist.”). Wikipedia has the sad story of Oscar’s junk, which has now gone missing.

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Yes, I’ve always found è to be way sexier than é. Even if the latter is said to be “a cute”.

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I believe someone is fishin’ for GIFs.

caitlin-doughty-■■■■■

But really it’s none of our business how other people do teabagging.

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Stiv Bators’ friends poured his ashes on Morrison’s grave except for the portion that his girlfriend snorted.

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Is there any kind of etiquette to it? What if there’s a line-up?

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Here’s an interesting video, not because she’s explaining and then demonstrating but because at about 3:35 in the video there is clearly a ghost in the background at the grave to the right of the tree.

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Ah the French.

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The Witcher 3 actually has a side quest based on this. Some one steals a similar statue’s schwanz and you need to solve the crime. Afterwards touching the statue gives you an endurance/stamina buff.

It’s delightfully stupid.

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MWH__moist__FGD135

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The french themselves have been making fun of this for a long time:

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My wife touched it. I am not aware of any change. But I might be missing something :slight_smile:

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Roadside America has a good guide to the etiquette of statue burnishing.

It includes this paragraph on a Dolly Parton statue:

The Dolly Parton statue in Sevierville, Tennessee, has a tastefully covered left breast that can be groped, either by hopeful maidens who wish to be favored with nature’s bounty, or by their lowlife boyfriends.

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It won’t be a bulge for ever, if St Peter’s toes are anything to go by:


(Kissing statues’ toes is frowned upon now, for obvious reasons)

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Can’t even snap Oscar’s without taking a shot of yourself.


Could depend on time of day though.