Place Marcel Aymé is just off Rue Norvins in Montmartre, the 18th arrondissement of Paris where you will find the statue of Dutilleul, the man who possessed super powers in Marcel Aymé's book Le Passe-Muraille (the Passer Through Walls).
As you've probably guessed, Dutilleul's super power was to be able to pass through walls. This is a cool sculpture and worth a look when in Montmartre.
Le Passe-Muraille is the title of a story by Marcel Aymé, whom this place or square is named after, and it's a super famous story in French. Kids read this story at school, because while it is a fun story, it also teaches you that if you have special powers or abilities, you must use them for good, which Dutilleul, the man in the story didn’t do .
Dutilleul used his power at work to drive a middle-management-level colleague crazy by constantly humiliating him and then he got more adventurous by deciding to rob banks and jewellery stores to have more money. He left signature notes with "Garou-Garou", roughly translated as "The Lone Wolf", for fun.
But he got caught by the police of course and he was put in jail. No problem though, he can escape very easily from jail. So he escapes and then he’s deciding how to use his power for the next few minutes, but he couldn't think of how to use it.
One day, he somehow got stuck in the wall and he immediately lost his power. The moral of the story is great power comes with great responsibility.
It’s said that if you can touch his head, you will have luck for the rest of your life. You will easily see if you visit this sculpture how his lower hand is shiny from all the tourists taking pictures pretending to pull le passe-muraille out of the wall.
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