If one day you find yourself ambling through the streets of Paris besieged by infertility fears or loneliness, guide your feet to Père Lachaise cemetery.
There you will find a life-sized bronze statue of Victor Noir. In particular you will find a bulbous bronze protuberance where his wedding vegetables should be, rising out of a sea of green. Bend down, give it a rub and all your fertility problems will be solved. That is what the lore of the land would have you believe.
Noir was a journalist during one of Paris's many popular upheavals in the 18th century. He had the thoroughly French misfortune of becoming embroiled in an argument about his newspaper that ended in slaps and gunfire.
Noir was killed and, to honour him, sculptor Jules Dalou recreated Noir in bronze, lying in the street just after he had been shot. Clearly Dalou was at pains to capture some of Noir's extraordinary "gifts".
The sculpture has become one of the most popular places for women to visit in the famous cemetery. Legend states that placing a flower in the upturned top hat after kissing the statue on the lips and rubbing its genital area will enhance fertility, bring a blissful sex life, or, in some versions, a husband within the year.
This became so popular that in 2004 a fence was erected around Noir to protect him, but such was the outcry from women in Paris that it was promptly torn down.
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