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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2014 21:11:11 GMT
I thought about visiting a cemetery yesterday, but frankly I am not a big fan of morbid crowds, so I decided instead to visit Père Lachaise today in morbid solitude. Rain was threatening, but it did not fall while I was there. It fell in abundance later in the day. I did not look for any famous tombs at all and decided that maybe I would photograph any famous tombs that I saw, maybe not. I was asked by a Filipino man if I knew where Jim Morrison was, but all I could tell him was "I know it's not far from here." So, anyway instead of doing my usual (sometimes boring) photo report, which would not at all be the first photo report mentioning Père Lachaise here, I decided to try to do a video instead. However, I'll probably add a few photos afterwards, most of which already appear in the video furtively. Also, I do understand that the video might be blocked in certain countries due to the music rights, but just tell me if that is the case and I will upload a new version with authorised music.
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Post by htmb on Nov 3, 2014 21:42:11 GMT
Very nicely done, Kerouac.
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Post by fumobici on Nov 3, 2014 22:05:54 GMT
Yes, and appropriately melancholy in tone. Looks like you went uphill from the Roquette entrance, a brave choice but no doubt good for slowing down and appreciating details.
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Post by lola on Nov 4, 2014 1:53:39 GMT
I can't watch now, but just because this computer is in "safety" mode.
Those wet mossy stones are slippery underfoot. My favorite celebrity graves lie near the Roquette entrance: Heloise and, to a lesser extent, her unworthy Abelard. (Favorite celebrity would be Wilde, but I dislike his monument.)
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Post by lagatta on Nov 4, 2014 2:25:56 GMT
And of course le mur des Fédérés!
It is very "slippery when wet". Not only those steep staircases, but the little allées which can be quite steep, and treacherous with their paving stones.
I know or rather knew some "inhabitants", and though I'm a rather fundie atheist, I do sometimes go to sit by their graves when I'm in Paris.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 4, 2014 6:14:12 GMT
Bravo!! That was superb, Kerouac. I absolutely love how you chose the photos and they way you processed them that so perfectly conveyed the mood. The way you trained the camera at the ground at times really caught the feeling of pensively moving through the cemetery. You may have missed your calling!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2014 7:12:00 GMT
Thanks all. Looks like you went uphill from the Roquette entrance, a brave choice but no doubt good for slowing down and appreciating details. I think that the main entrance at the end of rue de la Roquette is the only entrance that appropriately respects the dimension and majesty of the cemetery. I know that a lot of people prefer the back entrance just because they don't want to walk uphill. However, I don't think that people should even visit that cemetery if they don't want to climb around its hills. Père Lachaise actually has 5 different entrances. This time I left through one that I had never used before -- Porte de la Réunion. There was a sign saying that it is going to be closed for most of the rest of this month for some minor renovation work.
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Post by nycgirl on Nov 4, 2014 14:13:22 GMT
This is beautifully filmed and you chose the perfect musical accompaniment.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2014 14:19:22 GMT
Philip Glass goes will with most scenes of emptiness. But probably not many of us have ever actually bought Philip Glass CDs.
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Post by fumobici on Nov 4, 2014 15:13:31 GMT
The musical first segment I kept waiting for those three chords in arpeggio to be resolved.
The Reunion entrance is my favorite, I like slipping in stealthily and I just like the walk along Rue de Bagnolet. There's also a neat little public garden on your right just before you reach the entrance.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 5, 2014 10:31:00 GMT
I've entered it more often from rue de la Réunion or from the entrance off rue des Pyrénées, not out of a fear of climbing (one climbs from rue de la Réunion as well, as you can see in Kerouac's photos) but because I happened to be staying near one of those two entrances.
No photos of the resident cats...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2014 12:35:15 GMT
The cats seem to have disappeared, because I was on the lookout for them.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 5, 2014 14:35:05 GMT
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Post by tod2 on Nov 5, 2014 16:19:04 GMT
Beautiful Kerouac - I wish I could do something like that. Porte de la Réunion entrance leads one to the little Nature Garden I visited and photographed some years back now. Walking further down rue de Bagnolet is a famous old bar at number 15 - Le Piston Pelican with it's lovely curved old zinc bar.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2014 17:27:34 GMT
Yes, I skimmed through that garden on my way out.
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Post by htmb on May 21, 2015 12:07:36 GMT
I must return here with friends this summer. There's so much I've yet to see.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2015 12:38:17 GMT
Today happens to be the anniversary of the opening of Père Lachaise:21 May 1804. The first 'resident' was a 5-year old girl. But since it was way out of the city limits back then, it wasn't popular at all and there were only 13 burials there the first year. To make it more popular, the tombs of La Fontaine and Molière were transferred there in 1817. Ten years later, there were already 33,000 people!
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Post by htmb on May 21, 2015 13:51:18 GMT
It would be interesting to find the grave of that 5 year old girl.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2015 20:41:24 GMT
Since the concessions of ordinary people rarely last more than 99 years (or 30 years in modern times unless you pay extra), that grave probably disappeared long ago. But who knows?
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Post by htmb on May 21, 2015 23:34:00 GMT
Yes. Very true. I had not considered that point.
It would be worth some research.
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Post by htmb on May 22, 2015 1:21:43 GMT
Père Lachaise Cemetery was opened on 21 May 1804. The first person buried there was a five-year-old girl named Adélaïde Pailliard de Villeneuve, the daughter of a doorman of the Faubourg St. Antoine whose tomb is long lost.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 31, 2017 18:58:01 GMT
Time for a rerun?
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 1, 2017 5:03:06 GMT
Yes, indeedy ~ I should say so!
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 24, 2019 5:41:04 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 24, 2019 5:45:44 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 24, 2019 5:52:24 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 24, 2019 6:06:44 GMT
Cannot tell you how much I love this new sequence. Wonderful photos and your treatments give the perfect moody feel to them.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 24, 2019 17:21:00 GMT
Thanks, Bixa, but most of that stuff has just been sitting there for a hundred or more years waiting for absolutely anybody to point a camera at it.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 26, 2019 20:42:12 GMT
I am getting an itch to make a new cemetery video, probably not here, though, since it's been done.
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Post by whatagain on Oct 26, 2019 20:51:31 GMT
You are welcome to come to waterloo. I can drive you around. We have some nice cemeteries including the one in Rixensart ? Where Edgar p Jakob is buried. Under a sphinx. And I am serious about welcoming you.
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