Plaques likes these are attached to buildings all around Paris—an author lived here, a painter died here, a president was born here, etc. It’s amazing how many there are; and I find them very interesting. 
This first one is on a house where Rodin's student, lover, and muse, Camille Claudel, lived and worked between 1899 and 1913. In a letter to Rodin, she wrote (if I translated it correctly), "There is always something absent which worries me." Rodin never left his lifelong companion, Rose, but he did leave Camille. She eventually went crazy from grief and jealousy and had to be insitutionalized until her death. 
This one (above) is on the grand private resident in which France's Commander in Chief of the multinational Allied forces in WWI, Marshal Foch, died. If you've been to Les Invalides where Napoleon Bonopart's tomb is, you'll see Monsieur Foch's tomb lit with blue lights--I have no idea why. 
Some of the saddest plaques I see are the ones on the schools, especially in the Marais, that recognize the over 10,000 Jewish enfants that were deported from France by the Nazis between 1942 and 1944. The signs note the number of children taken from that particular school and that this was with the active participation of the French Government of Vichy--a sore spot in French history. "Never forget them."
There are also reminders of the Resistance fighters who died for their country in August 1944 during the liberation of Paris. There’s a ring at the bottom of each plaque to hold a bouquet of flowers; on various holidays, bouquets are faithfully placed in each ring to pay tribute to these heroes. At least ten of them died on the place de la Concorde and these are on a wall next to the Tuileries Garden, each with their own flower box as well as bouquet ring. They do give you pause.
This first one is on a house where Rodin's student, lover, and muse, Camille Claudel, lived and worked between 1899 and 1913. In a letter to Rodin, she wrote (if I translated it correctly), "There is always something absent which worries me." Rodin never left his lifelong companion, Rose, but he did leave Camille. She eventually went crazy from grief and jealousy and had to be insitutionalized until her death. This one (above) is on the grand private resident in which France's Commander in Chief of the multinational Allied forces in WWI, Marshal Foch, died. If you've been to Les Invalides where Napoleon Bonopart's tomb is, you'll see Monsieur Foch's tomb lit with blue lights--I have no idea why. Some of the saddest plaques I see are the ones on the schools, especially in the Marais, that recognize the over 10,000 Jewish enfants that were deported from France by the Nazis between 1942 and 1944. The signs note the number of children taken from that particular school and that this was with the active participation of the French Government of Vichy--a sore spot in French history. "Never forget them."There are also reminders of the Resistance fighters who died for their country in August 1944 during the liberation of Paris. There’s a ring at the bottom of each plaque to hold a bouquet of flowers; on various holidays, bouquets are faithfully placed in each ring to pay tribute to these heroes. At least ten of them died on the place de la Concorde and these are on a wall next to the Tuileries Garden, each with their own flower box as well as bouquet ring. They do give you pause.
