Hommage à Jean Moulin

The monument you are approaching serves as a permanent tribute to Jean Moulin, the legendary French Resistance leader who unified disparate groups to oppose the Nazi occupation. This specific site holds a direct connection to Moulin's own history, as he underwent his military medical examination for the Air Force at the nearby Base 117 in Issy-les-Moulineaux back in 1939. The sculpture you see, inaugurated in 1969, features a massive hexagonal block of granite from the Mont Blanc region. Carved into this stone is a demi-relief of Moulin’s face, captured with a stoic expression. A bronze frieze wraps around the middle of the monolith, adding a structural contrast to the rugged stone. Before this monument was installed, the location hosted a different memorial dedicated to the local resistance fighters who died in the war. When the city decided to elevate a tribute specifically to Moulin in the late 1960s, they commissioned the sculptor Marcel Mayer. The initial design faced rejection by a central national committee, but the project ultimately proceeded after local authorities successfully pushed for its approval. Moulin is frequently depicted wearing a fedora and a scarf, and you will notice that this aesthetic choice appears in many memorials. He famously wore the scarf to conceal a jagged, self-inflicted throat scar he sustained in 1940, when he attempted to take his own life to prevent the Germans from forcing him to sign a document that would have dishonored French troops. This monument stands as a reminder of that deep personal sacrifice and the eventual martyrdom he suffered under the Gestapo.