Victor Noir

Victor Noir was a French journalist and political activist who became a symbol of the struggle for freedom of the press and expression in the 19th century. His death in 1870, resulting from a duel with a royalist, turned him into a martyr for the republican cause. Noir's tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery, adorned with a striking bronze effigy, has drawn attention for a peculiar tradition wherein visitors rub a specific area of the statue for supposed fertility luck, making it one of the most visited monuments in Paris.