Saint Denis, the decapitated guy you'll bump into all over Paris

If, in your Paris wanderings, you've spent some time at Notre Dame admiring all the statues of saints and kings adorning the front of the cathedral, you may have found yourself wondering, "Who's that decapitated guy holding his head in his hands?" The headless man in question is Saint Denis, a martyr with a strange and incredible story. Saint Denis was the first bishop of Paris, back in the third century when Paris was still very much a Roman city. The prodigious number of conversions Denis performed got him on the bad side of the local pagan priests. So the Roman rulers of Paris had Denis arrested and brought him to the highest hill in Paris, now known as Montmartre, where he was executed by — you guessed it — beheading. Now, here comes the good part: It's said that immediately after Denis was killed, he picked up his head and walked six kilometers... Read more ►

Also new on Cool Stuff in Paris, two new Big Stuff articles:

• La Basilique du Sacré Coeur
  
• La Place de la Bastille
  

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Hidden in plain sight: fake windows painted onto a building in Beaubourg

I was wandering around taking pictures in my neighborhood this morning when I noticed these fake windows painted onto a building that's situated in a little unnamed square facing the South-East corner of the Centre Pompidou. I've walked by this spot literally hundreds of times and never noticed these before! Click here to see some more pictures of the fake windows.


Some closeup shots here!

L'Hôtel de Ville — a great place for an execution!

L'Hôtel de Ville is Paris' beautiful city hall, situated on the North bank of the Seine right in the center of town. You'd never guess that just in front of its doorstep lies a site where hundreds, possibly thousands of bloody executions took place, spanning over five centuries. The big open square in front is now called la Place de L'Hôtel de Ville, but its original name was the Place de Grève, and for centuries this was the spot in Paris where most public executions took place. Convicted criminals met their fate in various gruesome... Read more ►

Monsters in the Jardin des Tuileries

My girlfriend's father is visiting Paris from La Réunion, and he sent me these photos after a late afternoon stroll through the Jardin des Tuileries, the park that faces the courtyard of the Louvre.


There are a few more monsters here. It's great to have friends who know what you like.

A few new Paris restaurant and café reviews

I've posted a few new Paris restaurant and café reviews, which you can find in the top two entries on the Recent Stuff page if you're interested! I have a lot more fun writing the Cool and Weird articles, but these are important too! People gotta eat. (And drink.)

An unfinished statue of the Virgin Mary, buried for eight centuries

I'd never been in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés until recently, but I'm very glad I decided to stop in one afternoon while in the neighborhood to take pictures of the hotel where Oscar Wilde died. The abbey is gorgeous on the inside, but the one thing that really struck me is this 13-century statue of the Virgin Mary that's all the way in back. The statue is in pieces and visibly unfinished, reassembled from three fragments of rock discovered in an archeological dig in 1999. The sculpture, most likely... Read more ►

And the award for Parisian bar most likely to keep all their neon letters in good working order goes to...

Le Nazir, Rue des Abbesses, Montmartre

If I were the owner I'd be popping my head outside every five minutes to check.