|
Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2014 18:41:33 GMT
There have already been reports here showing Père Lachaise cemetery and the cemetery of Montmartre, but to my knowledge there have been no report about the cemetery of Montparnasse. That's sort of normal in a way because the other two cemeteries are probably more photogenic. Père Lachaise is quite hilly, so the tombs are arranged in certain places like the rice terraces of Indonesia, and the Montmartre cemetery also has a hilly area. As for which is the most historic, it is Père Lachaise which opened in 1804. The other two are almost the same age, because Montparnasse opened in 1824 and Montmartre in 1825. All of these places were far outlying areas back in those days and I'm sure that nobody ever imagined that the city would engulf them over time.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2014 18:52:23 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2014 19:01:45 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2014 19:16:09 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2014 19:26:11 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2014 19:34:44 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2014 19:47:02 GMT
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Aug 11, 2014 21:43:03 GMT
Beautiful photos, Kerouac. I'd wondered about the cemetery, and had actually considered walking there the afternoon before catching the train to La Rochelle. Instead, my friend and I went out for drinks and an early bowl of pasta, but I assume we must have been just a couple of blocks away.
|
|
|
Post by stickybeak on Aug 12, 2014 0:12:28 GMT
Kerouac: I posted this once but I think it fell through. Sorry if it's duplicated. This is in response to your remark about the Pigeon lamp. It was interesting to see his tombstone. It's an excerpt from one of my favorite books, "A Year in Marrakesh" by Peter Mayne, an English travel writer:
The thrust of the waves and their long sighing withdrawal makes a thrrump and a wheeesh in the darkness ahead of us. I write by the gleam of a little nineteenth-century paraffin lamp that forms part of Maurice's camping equipment. It is called "la lampe Pigeon". It is really a night-light for Second-Empire nurseries; of graceful design, brass, with a calligraphic inscription. It has a glass shade which fits into a crown of metal, pierced with a pattern of fleurs-de-lys. The spindle which was intended for winding the wick up and down so long ago does so no longer. Tonight Maurice has a safety-pin for this. "La lampe Pigeon" gives a tiny yellow light that scarcely flickers at all since the wind dropped.
I hope this helps.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2014 4:48:12 GMT
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Aug 12, 2014 5:16:11 GMT
A few years ago we had to stay in a hotel in Paris and stayed near Montparnasse. I went for a walk in the cemetery and there was a woman cleaning and decorating Gainsbourg's tomb. It was cluttered with CDs and other stuff then, not flowers.
I think Montparnasse cemetery is a little less pleasant to visit because there are fewer trees than in Père Lachaise or Montmartre.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2014 5:23:01 GMT
People used to leave heads of cabbage on Gainsbourg's tomb. All of the plants on it now are probably to discourage unnecessary additions.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Aug 12, 2014 5:27:32 GMT
I wasn't a Gainsbourg fan but why heads of cabbage?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2014 5:49:12 GMT
|
|
|
Post by stickybeak on Aug 13, 2014 1:33:53 GMT
And a thousand words is worth a picture-- thanks for illustrating what Mayne was describing. I'm going to look for one of these lamps next time I'm in an antique store.
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Aug 13, 2014 12:01:37 GMT
Thanks for the grand tour of this huge cemetery Kerouac. I did get a birds view of it when going up the top terrace of the Montparnasse building but that does not do it justice. I think it's level pathways and shady trees would suite me far more than my uphill visit to Pere Lachaise!
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2014 12:14:18 GMT
As might be expected for a relatively long street with no buildings on it and few pedestrians, rue Emile Richard is prime real estate for the homeless.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Aug 14, 2014 0:24:04 GMT
Obvious comment; some of the dead have finer digs than some of the living!
|
|
|
Post by anshjain97 on Aug 14, 2014 2:04:22 GMT
Very interesting. When I was in Paris, my hotel was just around the corner- however at that time, just couldn't believe that cemeteries could be tourist sights!
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Aug 14, 2014 14:42:11 GMT
During homework period (I look up things about Paris while waiting for my mother at the hairdressers) I found a few things that might interest someone reading this superb photo-essay of Kerouac's.
Before it was confiscated during the French Revolution to be used for the burial of unclaimed bodies, the cemetery's grounds had belonged to the Christian Ordre de la Charite` - their one-time windmill still stands within the cemetery's precincts and is the only one to have survived in the 14th Arr. and clearly seen in Kerouac's photo preceding the one of the grave of Chapour Bakhtiar. My information says there was talk at one time of fixing new sails to the old mill but I can see this has never been done. Voltaire was among the merry students from the Jesuit College de Clermont, who's hang-out was this mill.
Although Baudelaire was deeply rooted in Montparnasse no tombstone bears his name - he lies next to his mother and stepfather, General Aupick, under the name of the latter. Don't be surprised to see a game of chess being played on the tomb of the Grandmaster and Russian Alexandre Alekhine.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2014 16:24:13 GMT
I almost photographed the chess tomb, but I was nearing the end of my visit and felt I had enough photos.
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Aug 14, 2014 19:54:26 GMT
I'm not sure what I'm seeing in the second picture from the top in reply #3. What exactly is on the top of the tomb, Kerouac?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2014 20:01:57 GMT
It was all sorts of little metal sculptures (people?).
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Aug 14, 2014 20:03:50 GMT
Attached to the tomb, or had they been left there by visitors? Was that a metal top?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2014 20:05:22 GMT
They were all attached. The tomb was all in stainless steel.
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Aug 14, 2014 20:09:12 GMT
Thank you.
Your photos are excellent, but some are just absolutely over the top. There's one with the three people walking away from you in the distance that I really love. The first in a series, I seem to recall.
|
|
|
Post by yymca6 on Aug 14, 2014 23:28:22 GMT
Hi K2. How did you manage to find Philippe Noiret's tomb? In my last 3 visits I never could find it. Apart from Baudelaire's tomb (and the "cénotaphe" well hidden at the end of an alley), it seems you missed Jean Seberg, the American actress who was married to Romain Gary/Émile Ajar, and Delphine Seyrig, the beautiful French actress who died too early. Did you find Pierre Laval's tomb? I've been looking for it for a few years so I can do what he deserves to get ("pisser sur sa tombe"...) BTW someone at TA solved my problem and asked Support Service to really answer my question instead of giving me a useless answer.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2014 4:44:10 GMT
I did not try to hunt down every single tomb, so obviously there are plenty left for a future visit. Philippe Noiret was not at all hard to find because he is on one of the main lanes. Directly across from his tomb on the other side of the lane is another actor -- Jean Poiret.
|
|
|
Post by yyca6 on Aug 15, 2014 14:08:21 GMT
Tx for your answer. I'll be in Paris for a month from August 23 and I will check him out.
|
|
|
Post by yymca6 on Apr 29, 2015 22:13:34 GMT
Hello again! I forgot to tell you we finally found Noiret and this time after a few try, we a;also found Pierre Laval's tomb, creepy one IMHO.
|
|