Tourists visiting the Notre-Dame-de-la-Médaille-Miraculeuse chapel in Paris, July 15, 2024. BENJAMIN GIRETTE/PARISMATCH/SCOOP
Brazilians, Mexicans, Spaniards, Italians, Filipinos... At the exit of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Médaille-Miraculeuse, or Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, in Paris (7th arrondissement), visitors from all over the world can be seen. Some pull rolling suitcases, others carry a shopping bag from the upscale shopping center Le Bon Marché, located just across the street. No one enters through the porch on Rue du Bac by chance: Everyone has included this stop in a day packed with sightseeing in the city.
"It is a very well-known chapel in Guatemala. All my friends who have come to Paris have stopped by here," said Olga (who did not want to give her last name, as did all the people cited by first name only), 60, on holiday with her son. Maria, a 57-year-old Mexican, has known this chapel since childhood. "My father gave me a book about the Miraculous Medal. I remembered it a few days ago when I came across a YouTube video. So I told myself, I can't leave Paris without coming here!"
Not very large, very well maintained, and located in an upscale district popular with tourists, this Parisian chapel will have welcomed "three million people in 2025," mainly foreigners, according to Father Alexis Cerquera Trujillo, a former Lazarist missionary and rector of the site. This is a record. It is double the number of visitors to the Sainte-Chapelle (where entry is ticketed), and roughly the same as the Musée d'Orsay. "Ten years ago, we had half as many visitors," said the Colombian priest. The surrounding shopkeepers have greatly benefited from this influx.
