An attempt at climbing! Oil on canvas (detail), late eighteenth century

The small eight of the partially buried podium and the quarry stone facing that existed before Grangent's restoration attracted intrepid climbers. After many others, a contemporary traveller complained that children "use stones to break the ornaments of some of the ancient monuments " (Le Moniteur Universel, 14 nivôse an VII). And then in 1837, Stendhal remembered that 'In my early youth, I saw the Maison Carrée subjected to the most degrading outrages: hundreds of children threw stones at the birds that nested in the carvings of the capitals.'