A Minute Man in Paris

by Herb Grossimon

Before moving to the Cape some ten years ago, my wife, Nancy, and I lived in Lexington for over twenty years. Shortly after moving there I joined the Lexington Minute Men, a group that has been in continuous existence since 1773, before their first battle with the British at the start of the American Revolution. I worked through the ranks and eventually became Captain Commanding. I remain active today, participating in the reenactment of the Battle of Lexington every Patriots Day, as well as attending other parades and events throughout the year.

In early September (1999), Nancy and I journeyed to Antony, France, a sister city of Lexington, to participate in the dedication of a monument honoring the Lexington Minute Men. All told, there were about sixty of us: twenty-five Minute Men, their wives and about ten other citizens of Lexington.

Antony is a beautiful little town (population 60,000) about 12 miles south of Paris, near the Orly Airport. It’s a new town, very clean, and obviously a post-war town---all the buildings are of modern design and fresh looking.

On the day we arrived, there was a welcoming cocktail party and dinner, with a country-style meal typical of the region. Naturally, there was lots of wine, again from the region. The next day, we put on our dress uniforms and paraded to "Lexington Place", a newly built roundabout that contains the twenty-foot high obelisk that honors what they call "The Lexington Freedom Fighters". Marching through the streets of Antony in our colorful uniforms and to the attention-grabbing sounds of our fifes and drums caused quite a few citizens to run out from their houses to see what was going on. Many ran back inside to grab their cameras. Anyway, there were the usual dedication speeches, with translators doing the best they could so that all could know what was being said. Afterwards, we marched back to the Town Hall, and there was another cocktail party and lunch. The atmosphere belied the usual feeling that the French don’t warm up to us Americans. Everyone warmed up to everyone. We left Antony promising to keep the personal friendships made during our short visit alive, promising to come back, and inviting our hosts to visit us in the USA.

The next day was Labor Day in the US, and the 242nd birthday of le Marquis de Lafayette, the one hero of both the American and French revolutions. We wanted to pay tribute to him by visiting his gravesite.

Lafayette is buried in a small, obscure cemetery in a southeastern corner of Paris, just off the rue de Picpus. Besides Lafayette and his family, 1306 victims of the French Revolution, all guillotined during a tragic and horrible three week period, are buried there in a mass grave.

Lafayette wanted to be and is buried in American soil, dirt he brought back with him after one of his visits to America. He is buried alongside his wife and his son, George Washington Lafayette. An American flag flies permanently over the gravesite. (It flew there even during the German occupation of Paris---apparently because the cemetery is small and obscure, the Germans didn’t know it was there.)

One of the Minute Men, Dan Fenn, Jr., spoke briefly. "We are here because it would have been disrespectful in the extreme for the Lexington Minute Men to leave Paris without paying tribute to you. You visited our community one hundred and seventy-five years ago. You came to our aid at the age of 19, despite the opposition of your family and your king. We celebrate and salute your lifetime of work, almost up to the hour of your death, on behalf of the common people --- to enhance the quality of their lives, to expand their education, and most of all, to secure their political freedom." He closed by repeating the words first uttered at that gravesite by General Pershing during World War I, "Lafayette, nous voici."

At that point the fifes and drums of the Minute Men played le Marseillaise, and then the Star Spangled Banner. The curator of the cemetery dipped the American flag as a gesture of response. Most of us found our eyes watering over with emotion. It was for us the highlight of our trip.