On a San Francisco Hilltop, a Little Bit of Paris

Plus: Readers Respond, Pearl Harbor and Notre Dame Cathedral

The bells of an international treasure are ringing again. This weekend the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris reopens after nearly being destroyed by fire five and a half years ago.

The beautiful and historic cathedral, whose first stones were put into place by the builders and craftspeople of the 12th century, has now been restored by the builders and craftspeople of the 21st. It is said to be even more beautiful than it was before.

Before the fire, 15 million people visited Notre Dame every year. Come Sunday, Mass will be held there again and the church will go back to being what it was built to be: a House of God.

While it may be a little late to hop on a plane and attend the opening ceremonies, you can, if you have a mind to, visit another masterpiece of French art and culture here in California, on a hilltop in San Francisco.

By the sculptor Auguste Rodin, it is Il Penseur or The Thinker.

Photograph, Courtesy of Legion of Honor

The bronze statue resides in the front courtyard of the Legion of Honor Museum in Lincoln Park in the outlying western reaches of the city with its gorgeous views of the waters of the Golden Gate channel and the bridge that spans it.

Here, the late great Robin Williams, who lived near the museum in the Sea Cliff neighborhood, offers a helping hand to the figure whose seated, meditative pose has stirred questions and comments ever since Rodin unveiled the original sculpture in Paris in 1904.

This San Francisco version of The Thinker is a cast of the original. It was brought to the city for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, an international art and commerce fair that celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal. Nine years later it moved across town and became the centerpiece for another opening—that of the Legion of Honor, which is marking its 100th anniversary this year.

One reason why Rodin’s work still stirs the imagination today is that it poses a question no one will ever be able to answer: What in the world is Naked Guy thinking about?

His mysterious, deeply thoughtful pose also causes many to look within themselves and ponder the eternal mysteries that we all face as human beings—matters of life, death, and how to get girls if you’re a teenage boy like Dobie Gillis.

The actor Dwayne Hickman made this pose famous while playing the lead role in the No. 1-rated 1960s black and white sitcom, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Whenever Dobie had trouble with girls, which was often, he would take a seat on a bench near The Thinker and try to sort it out.

You can be sure that The Thinker in this publicity shot was not cast from the original Rodin, like the Legion of Honor’s sculpture and two dozen others now on display at museums around the world. Hollywood set designers probably made it just for the show.

Nevertheless, like Dobie, inspired by The Thinker, generations of young people have been stirred to think deeply about their own problems:

Courtesy of Legion of Honor

In case you’re wondering what the sculpture looks like today, here it is in the covered courtyard at the Legion of Honor. Notice the tiny pyramid in the rear of the picture at the front door of the museum. It is a witty tribute to I.M. Pei’s grand and gorgeous glass pyramid in the center courtyard of the Louvre in Paris.

The tiny pyramid.

The big one.

Besides The Thinker, the Legion of Honor houses three galleries of Rodin work, in addition to its collection of French and European art of the past. Currently it is hosting Mary Cassatt at Work, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by the 19th century American artist.

Cassatt lived in Paris for many years and did her best work there. She was the lone American painter invited to join the famous group of French Impressionists that included Cezanne, Monet, and Renoir. The show, which runs through Jan. 26, 2025, features such works as Woman at Her Toilette—

Readers Respond

Our recent reminiscence on The North Face, REI, and other Berkeley backpacking companies of the 1960s and ‘70s stirred memories for Kate Burroughs. “I had forgotten the long lineage of backpacking gear companies in the East Bay,” she writes. “My husband has a very short REI membership number, long before they opened stores everywhere.”

Mark Croghan attended the University of California during those years and Berkeley, he says, “was a huge eye opener for this bumpkin from Hayward. Learned a lot.” Another eye-opener for him was when he went backpacking in Yosemite National Park with this writer and Jeff Pector, who is briefly profiled in the article.

“I remember backpacking in Tuolumne Meadows coming down from Mount Hoffman with you and Jeff the summer after our senior year,” says Mark. “I was trailing as you both hiked it ‘al fresco.’ You were right—the comments of those you passed were interesting and mixed.” As for himself, Mark decided to keep his clothes on while hiking.

The article reminded Dan Crouch of the history of Doug Tompkins, “who made a fortune as the founder of North Face and co-founder of Esprit,” as Dan writes. “He started buying land in Patagonia, Chile, with his second wife, Kris McDivitt, who had been CEO of the company Patagonia.

“They ended up buying about two million acres of wilderness and donating the land to Chile to be used as national parks. Doug capsized his kayak in a Chilean lake and was in 40 degree Fahrenheit water for too long, and died from severe hypothermia. Kris continued their work of buying wilderness in Chile and donating it for parkland. She (and Tompkins Conservation) have now donated up to 10 million acres of wilderness, one of the largest private donations in history.”

Dan, who grew up in Santa Paula, California, continues with this personal aside: “One of the reasons I followed this story is because Kris is from Santa Paula, three years ahead of me in school. She apparently does not have fond memories of SP, though. The high school students there were not always very friendly, and a few were downright mean. When I graduated, I just wanted to get the hell out of there as soon as I could and go off to college. So I don't blame her for not liking the place.

“Kris,” he adds, “was in the news not long ago because she donated all of the papers associated with the land donations to Stanford University's archives.”

Pearl Harbor and Notre Dame

On Saturday, December 7, the President of France will address dignitaries from around the world as part of the opening ceremonies for the restored Cathedral of Notre Dame.

December 7 is also Pearl Harbor Day, a day of remembrance in this country. It was the day, in 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii and brought the United States fully into World War II.

The two events—Pearl Harbor then, Notre Dame now—are not unrelated.

During World War II Adolf Hitler ordered the fire bombing of Paris, its complete destruction. If his orders had been followed—his German generals, thinking this utter madness, refused to obey—would have razed the city and reduced the great cathedral to rubble.

Although this act of insanity did not occur, the jackbooted German army occupied France and much of Europe for four long and murderous years. Their violent oppression came to an end only after the Americans, joined by the British, Canadians, and Free French troops, liberated France beginning with the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy.

After tremendous sacrifice and loss of life, the victorious Allied armies marched into Paris cheered on by hundreds of thousands of jubilant French citizens. These young, battle-hardened warriors, basking in this overwhelming acclaim, entered the city via the Arc De Triomphe and the famous central boulevard of Paris, the Champs Elysees.

From there many of the celebrants, soldiers and civilians alike, sought refuge in Notre Dame to pray and worship. Like all the churches around Paris, its bells were ringing.