T63 - A day at Pere Lachaise
Nov 16, 2009 2:04:04 GMT
Post by traveler63 on Nov 16, 2009 2:04:04 GMT
"So, what are we going to do tomorrow? I asked Mr. T63 as we were finishing our little snack after walking all over the fashion district on Rue St. Honore.
our dinner
"Oh, why don't we just jump the Quarte de September metro and take a ride to Pere Lachaise" he said as he took another bite of of pate and cheese. "Sounds good to me" as I took another drink of wine. We had always been fascinated by the cemeteries that are around Arizona, not just the famous ones like in Tombstone, but the out of the way ones that we would find near some of the ghost towns in our area. It isn't about death, it is about imagining the lives of people that has always peaked my imagination. How did they come to live in the area, what was their reasons for living out in the middle of nowhere.
So...... Another beautiful day dawned in Paris and we packed the cameras, water and off we went to Pere Lachaise. We had read so much about it and there were enough travel books in the apartment to give us a good idea of what to expect. We took Rick Steve's book with us because he had exact directions on how to do the walk. We started from the Gambetta metro stop because you start on the uphill side of the cemetery so you are walking downhill as you go. We both had explored the Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans(which many people think is in the city of Metairie) which we were fascinated with. So, we felt we knew what we were in for in our exploration of Pere Lachaise. Ha!!!! I was blown away with the size and scope of this cemetery. Some of the facts about Pere Lachaise that are amazing to me. There actually was a Father Lachaise who was Louis XIV's confessor and that there has been some kind of religious structure there since 1682 and in fact it was a Jesuit Rest House. In addition there are 70,000 19th century funeral monuments in the cemetery. The fact that there are over 200 very famous people of all persuasions, not just Jim Morrison, but George Bizet, one of my favorite operas is Carmen; Frederick Chopin, I stood in front of his grave and closed my eyes and could see myself at 7 years old sitting at Mrs. Johnson's piano, playing(badly) one of his compositions
There are engineers, poets, musicians, authors, and just regular people. So, we started our walk and I actually lost my sense of time and place, actually losing my feeling of being in the 21st century. With each step, it was like an out of body experience for me.
Of course we found Colette. I took the picture and later in the week went to a book store and bought the complete works of Colette in French for Kay, my youngest granddaughter. She is into French and is in her second year. She has a natural flair for the language and is fascinated with all things French. I think it might come from Mr T63 because is grandmother was French Canadian and Kay is the spitting image of her.
As we continued to explore I found many of the graves that I just couldn't pass up taking pictures of. Doors;
There were plain ones;
old leaning ones;
some with different religious items sitting on them;
some that were lined up along little pathways;
and some that were all together:
but the ones that really caught my feelings and attention I will post in Part II.
our dinner
"Oh, why don't we just jump the Quarte de September metro and take a ride to Pere Lachaise" he said as he took another bite of of pate and cheese. "Sounds good to me" as I took another drink of wine. We had always been fascinated by the cemeteries that are around Arizona, not just the famous ones like in Tombstone, but the out of the way ones that we would find near some of the ghost towns in our area. It isn't about death, it is about imagining the lives of people that has always peaked my imagination. How did they come to live in the area, what was their reasons for living out in the middle of nowhere.
So...... Another beautiful day dawned in Paris and we packed the cameras, water and off we went to Pere Lachaise. We had read so much about it and there were enough travel books in the apartment to give us a good idea of what to expect. We took Rick Steve's book with us because he had exact directions on how to do the walk. We started from the Gambetta metro stop because you start on the uphill side of the cemetery so you are walking downhill as you go. We both had explored the Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans(which many people think is in the city of Metairie) which we were fascinated with. So, we felt we knew what we were in for in our exploration of Pere Lachaise. Ha!!!! I was blown away with the size and scope of this cemetery. Some of the facts about Pere Lachaise that are amazing to me. There actually was a Father Lachaise who was Louis XIV's confessor and that there has been some kind of religious structure there since 1682 and in fact it was a Jesuit Rest House. In addition there are 70,000 19th century funeral monuments in the cemetery. The fact that there are over 200 very famous people of all persuasions, not just Jim Morrison, but George Bizet, one of my favorite operas is Carmen; Frederick Chopin, I stood in front of his grave and closed my eyes and could see myself at 7 years old sitting at Mrs. Johnson's piano, playing(badly) one of his compositions
There are engineers, poets, musicians, authors, and just regular people. So, we started our walk and I actually lost my sense of time and place, actually losing my feeling of being in the 21st century. With each step, it was like an out of body experience for me.
Of course we found Colette. I took the picture and later in the week went to a book store and bought the complete works of Colette in French for Kay, my youngest granddaughter. She is into French and is in her second year. She has a natural flair for the language and is fascinated with all things French. I think it might come from Mr T63 because is grandmother was French Canadian and Kay is the spitting image of her.
As we continued to explore I found many of the graves that I just couldn't pass up taking pictures of. Doors;
There were plain ones;
old leaning ones;
some with different religious items sitting on them;
some that were lined up along little pathways;
and some that were all together:
but the ones that really caught my feelings and attention I will post in Part II.