One of the points on the itinerary inThe two islands on the Seine It is the Rue des Chantres from which Notre Dame Cathedral is viewed in all its glory. However, this street provides not only a charming view but also a special love story between two lovers, who in life and death were never separated.
Abelard and Heloise fall in love
At number 10 on this street stood the house of Canon Fulbert, who was one of the clergymen who ran the church of Notre Dame. In 1118, his 17-year-old relative Heloise moved into this house and, since she was a very intelligent woman, Fulbert decided to hire the services of Pierre Abelard, one of the important lecturers at the Sorbonne University, who was also a handsome and charismatic man. As a result, Heloise fell in love with him from the first lesson, even though he was twenty-two years her senior.
Thus began a passionate love story between the teacher and the student. Since Pierre was not known for his discretion and “ran to tell his friends,” the affair was eventually discovered by Polbert, who expelled Abelard from his home. However, it was already too late, as it turned out that Héloïse was pregnant with Abelard’s son. Héloïse was sent to Brittany, where she gave birth to their son, whom she named Astrolab, after an instrument that allowed her to determine the positions of the celestial bodies. In the meantime, Polbert continued to plot his revenge for the “desecration of the family’s honor.” And so one day, when Abelard returned home, he was attacked by a group of thugs hired by Polbert. These thugs were not content with beatings, which they had beaten up Abelard, but also decided to castrate him so that he could no longer fulfill his physical love for Abelard.
Abelard and Eloise move (more than once)
Despite Abelard's physical disability, his love for Héloïse continued until his death in 1142 at the age of 63. In 1164, Héloïse died at the same age as Abelard and before her death, she asked to be buried in Abelard's tomb at the Paraclet Monastery, which the deceased had founded. The bodies of the two lovers lay in the same coffin until 1497, when the nuns decided that it was immodest and buried the two lovers in two separate tombs in the Petit Moustiers chapel. In 1792, Abelard and Héloïse continued to “move” when the revolutionaries decided to unite the two lovers into one coffin containing a partition. If you thought that the bodies of the lovers had finally gained some peace, you were wrong.
The cemetery was established in the early 19th century. Pere Lachaise (Pere Lachaise) in eastern Paris. Because the cemetery was located in a poorer part of the city and because it had never been consecrated by the church, the stable bourgeois of Paris kept their feet (or rather their bodies) away from the cemetery. In an act of marketing genius, the cemetery owners realized that everyone wants to live next to famous people and if they can't afford it in life, they'd be happy to live next door to them in death. So they decided to move the playwright's grave there. Molière, the writer La Fontaine and finally the tombs of Abelard and Aloise. And the trick worked beyond expectations. In 1817, when the lovers' tomb was moved to Père Lachaise, there were fewer than 1000 graves there, while by 1830 there were more than 33,000. Today, about a million people are buried there and the list of celebrities buried at Père Lachaise is very long.
And Abelard and Heloise? They lie together for nearly 200 years undisturbed not far from Jim Morrison's grave by the doors. I wonder if the neighbors find them handsome...
Want to read more about Abelard and Heloise?
Don't miss Danny Ashkenazi's wonderful article Abelard and Heloise: Love Letters That Survived Nearly a Thousand Years.