When Diana Spencer and two others died in the tunnel under Paris’s Place de Alma, grieved supporters spontaneously made the Statue of Liberty Memorial (Flamme de la Liberte) their own.

Soon after, during the winter of ’97-’98, I found myself living just around the corner.  The stream of diverse pilgrims came at all times, and from every direction, even though authorities tried to discourage them.

Eventually, the French were able to reclaim their site and surround it with a fence.

Few seek it out these days.

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