Montmartre Cemetery Paris, Nov. 1, 2009 (by kerouac2)

That's a lot of flowers! I had no idea this was such a big deal.

There were special shuttle vans to take people around the cemetery. After all, most of the people who visit cemeteries are elderly, and those cobblestones are absolute killers.



There are some very dedicated people who visit these cemeteries. In one section, I noticed that somebody had placed a small flower on every tomb that did not have fresh flowers. I thought that this was very nice.



(to be continued)

All of the big cemeteries have certain tombs with Gothic chapels including stained glass.



I came across a couple of more tombs which seemed to be the final resting place of someone who may have been famous in another country.



Meanwhile, some tombs had been served notice of the end of their concession. If family members or other benefactors do not manifest themselves to regularize the situation, the defunct will be removed and the gravesite awarded to someone else.



Some people can be buried in a grand tomb, as long as they are willing to share.



Epitaphs are not really common in France, but you can find one on a tomb from time to time.



This was the tomb of a movie star who died a few years ago, Jean Claude Brialy. If you saw Eric Rohmer's "Claire's Knee," he was the star of it, but he made dozens of films over the years.



Being a vain person, he had purchased his concession years before he died, so that he could be next to one of the stars of the cemetery, Alphonsine Plessis, the original "Dame aux Camélias." ("Camille" to anglophones) Actresses who have played her include Sarah Berhnardt, Lillian Gish and Isabelle Adjani. She is also the subject of the opera "La Traviata." Basically, she was a bastard child who screwed herself through high society in France and died at the age of 23. Today's magazines would have had a field day with somebody like that.



I continued my wanderings and finally went home...



In any case, crows were beginning to gather as the weather worsened.



Maybe I'll try Père Lachaise next year.

The entrances to the Montmartre cemetery are indeed very discreet.

Paul Verlaine:

Chanson d’automne


Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l'automne
Blessent mon cœur
D'une langueur
Monotone.

Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l'heure,
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure;

Et je m'en vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m'emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.

Kerouac, is this the cemetery that Oscar Wilde is buried in? If so, I visited there some years back. Can't remember the name of it...

So many flowers, it's nice to see.

something else I missed in Paris. Fantastic k! Thanks

Two of the principal yet unobtrusive entrances are just off Place de Clichy on avenue Rachel (hardly a real avenue since it is a dead end to the cemetery gate) -- that's the "main" entrance, and as fumobici said, just after the rue Caulaincourt bridge next to the Terrass Hôtel. That particular entrance will take you instantly to the Dalida tomb.

Meanwhile, Oscar Wilde is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery, which is much bigger than this one.

I went to Montmartre cemetery for the first time about 2 years ago, just for a walk around. The stones with the information about the Polish poet Slowacki were added since then -- he wouldn't have been known to the French but was part of the huge Polish intelligentsia emigration of the 19th century. On the tomb his name is Juliusz, not Jules!

One nice thing about the 3 big Parisian cemeteries is that at the main entrance there is a guard who will give you a map of the cemetery with the location of famous people's tombs. Of course, at Père Lachaise, there is a permanent police officer on guard at Jim Morrison's grave so that fans don't do anything stupid.

I had never seen Dalida in action before! God, that's awful!

Oh I see. I actually found the Pere Lachasie cemetery by accident. What happened was that my cousin and I went to Paris for a week, and after a few days, we had an argument, so I suggested that the next day, she go her way and I go mine, and we'd meet up at the end of the day. And that is how I ended up going all the way around Paris, into places that I never imagined I would go or even knew about. (Including the red light district)! And of this cemetery.

this morning NPR ran this story about the big cemetery.

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120004255

I took this photo last year at a tiny village cemetery near Anghiari out in the woods off a little path I like to hike. A week earlier the graves and in fact the cemetery itself were literally invisible, buried under weeds but someone cleared it for All Saints Day and put flowers and candles on the graves. I'd walked within feet of it at other times of the year before and never noticed it before.

What's with people registering, making one post and immediately unregistering here? I've been on a lot of BBs and I've never seen it happen anywhere else the way it happens here.

Bizarre to say the least.

Actually, Deja Pseu is a member here, but I think maybe she lost her password. I hope she is reading this, so will realize that lost passwords can be retrieved from the host board.

But you are right about all the people who registered and never post or even look in.