We encourage you to seek out this unique, integrated statue with a story to tell in Montmartre’s place Marcel-Ayme, just off of Rue Norvins, in the 18th arrondissement.
French actor Jean Marais constructed this statue – Le Passe-Muraille, or “The Passer Through Walls” – based on the otherworldly premise of a novel with the same name by French writer Marcel Ayme, a native of the neighborhood. That novel’s premise? The life and times of a man who can, of course, walk through walls.
Mostly, this special ability serves the novel’s protagonist, a man named Dutilleul, well. He uses it for workplace hijinks, burglaries and illicit affairs with married women. In the end, though, a cruel fate befalls Dutilleul: his special power picks a terrible moment to stop working, and he remains forever entombed in a stone Montmartre wall.
