One of the oldest documents about this practice is a deed of August 11, 1425 in which a certain Jean Aymar paid five guilders for wax images offered in gratitude to the Virgin. During his travels in the south of France at the beginning of the 19th century, Aubin-Louis Millin de Grandmaison was struck by the number of ex-voto at Notre-Dame de la Garde: "The path that leads to the oratory is stiff and difficult. The chapel is small and narrow, but decorated everywhere with tributes from pious mariners: on the ceiling small vessels are suspended with their rigs and have their name registered on the stern; they represent those that the mother of Christ has saved from cruel shipwreck or from the fury of pirates and corsairs". The ceiling of the upper church still features many scale models of recently restored boats and planes.