PARIS, FRANCE.- The Musée national des Arts et Traditions populaires presents "Popular Heroes," on view through June 10, 2002. Heroes dwell in human memory as ideal role models and exemplary figures. This exhibition explores the values of European peoples from the year 1000 to the present day, as revealed through the exploits of their heroes. After an introduction pointing to the dual pagan and Judeo-Christian ancestry of European heroes (Alexander of Macedonia, St Michael and St George), the first part of the exhibition focuses on chivalric heroism. Chivalry was the preserve of the great men of the world, so the heroes were kings or knights (Charlemagne, Roland, Lancelot and King Arthur), who raised their function to the highest plane. As champions of the all-conquering faith, these valiant knights, knights-errant, crusaders, knights of the Round Table, etc. passed easily from the love of God to the mystic love of the Lady and exalted faithfulness as a major virtue. They incarnated a lifestyle based on adventures and travels, in a world without boundaries, driven by their quest for the Absolute. However, by the end of the Middle Ages, an awareness of the gap between the ideal and real life, and the decline of the faith, produced a crop of heroes assailed by doubt, condemned to joust with Death and provoke God (Don Juan, Faust).