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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 16:44:59 GMT
Even though the Day of the Dead isn't until November 2nd, it is on the 1st of November that French families trek to the cemeteries to put flowers on the family graves. If they only go to the cemetery once a year, today is the day. In the village cemeteries of France, you will see fresh chrysanthemums on nearly every grave. In a city like Paris, the majority of the graves remain untouched, because urban families are much more dispersed, not to mention the fact that many of the graves no longer have a living family. However, you will still see lots of fresh flowers, and there are plenty to see as you approach the cemetery entrance. Once people are finally equipped with the proper offerings, it is time to enter the cemetery. (to be continued)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 17:26:04 GMT
I did not go hunting for famous graves today, although the Montmartre cemetery has no lack of them, from François Truffaut to Emile Zola. However, I knew exactly where to find the grave of Dalida, a French singing idol born in Egypt of Italian parents. She committed suicide, which of course makes her tomb even more popular.
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Post by imec on Nov 1, 2009 17:36:36 GMT
That's a lot of flowers! I had no idea this was such a big deal.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 17:42:30 GMT
The real attraction of the Parisian cemeteries is to wander at random along the alleyways and among the tombs. Naturally, there are always a certain number of tombs that are out of the ordinary. This celebrity tomb amused me. Just about everybody in France knows what kind of films he made, but I suggest a visit to Wikipedia in case you have never heard of Jean Daniel Cadinot. (to be continued)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 18:12:27 GMT
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)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 19:42:55 GMT
I saw a lot of Polish visitors swarming over this tomb. Many people of great importance to other countries have been interred in the cemeteries of Paris. Basically, I just continued wandering in the light rain. (to be continued)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 20:24:41 GMT
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.
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Post by fumobici on Nov 1, 2009 21:13:23 GMT
Beautiful photo essay, best I've seen on Montmartre. Compared to Montparnasse and especially Pere Lachaise it's relatively hard to find a way into Montmartre, so I've never been inside.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 21:23:19 GMT
The entrances to the Montmartre cemetery are indeed very discreet.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 21:32:48 GMT
Very beautiful K. Thank you for this. Despite the rainy day,the umbrellas add a certain something to the photos,along with the crows,the beautiful autumn leaves and vines. The odor of chrysanthemums always remind me of this time of year. It's an odd,earthy odor.
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Post by spindrift on Nov 1, 2009 21:52:24 GMT
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.
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Post by suzanne on Nov 1, 2009 22:15:36 GMT
Is this cemetary open to the public? Where are the entrances?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2009 0:43:01 GMT
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.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 2, 2009 1:05:01 GMT
warning: the following post will contain gushing
Oh god. As an aficionada of cemeteries, I feel I am qualified to say that these are the best cemetery pictures ever, anywhere.
I don't know how you managed to take such fantastic pictures in that kind of light, buy you perfectly captured the weather, the light, and even the temperature of the day. I know this is over the top, but several of the photos showing trees and fallen leaves actually made me tear up with their beauty.
It is all so interesting, too, with all the styles and different ages. Until I saw your photos of La Mouzaïa, and then these, I never realized that Paris was built on so many different levels.
This is a complete treasure, one I'll return to again and again to enjoy. Thank you.
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Post by imec on Nov 2, 2009 3:56:10 GMT
something else I missed in Paris. Fantastic k! Thanks
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Post by fumobici on Nov 2, 2009 4:08:37 GMT
I think the wet Fall day only added to the ambiance of the photos. This photo set if taken on a brilliant sunny day would not have been near as evocative. The moody diffuse light of a rainy day and seeing the fallen leaves makes me feel like I'm there somehow. I can smell it.
There's a bridge at the foot of Caillancourt (spelling?), the shopping road that goes up around the hill from which you can see into the cemetery, but there's no obvious entrance. I was told that at the South end of the bridge there are some stairs that take you to an entrance there but I can't remember seeing any signage to assist one find it.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2009 6:04:31 GMT
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.
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Post by kiwidi on Nov 2, 2009 8:02:27 GMT
The autumn leaves remind me of the first time I saw the movie Dr Zhivago. That small boy at the graveside, the leaf floating over it - I was in tears even before the movie had properly begun!
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Post by bjd on Nov 2, 2009 8:13:36 GMT
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!
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Post by bazfaz on Nov 2, 2009 8:49:43 GMT
As in all villages in France, Toussaints is when the chrysanthemums go on display. Mrs Faz went to capture the sight at the cemetery in our village of Marminiac.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2009 14:11:28 GMT
Meanwhile, Oscar Wilde is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery, which is much bigger than this one. 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.
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Post by denise on Nov 2, 2009 20:57:18 GMT
:)I am staying near Montmartre cemetary next year and this was on my list as the first cometary in Paris I would visit. So this information and pictures is especially useful.
Again you take wonderful intersting pictures that tell a story.
Thanks Kerouac
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2009 21:44:07 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2009 21:52:53 GMT
And yet the real action in France is in all of the village cemeteries, such as the one in the photo posted by Baz Faz. The cities forget their dead for the most part.
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Post by fumobici on Nov 2, 2009 23:08:39 GMT
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.
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Post by deja pseu on Nov 3, 2009 1:15:54 GMT
Those are gorgeous and very moving images. Thanks for posting them.
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Post by fumobici on Nov 3, 2009 2:40:05 GMT
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.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2009 5:53:11 GMT
Guests can post here if they enter the security code, so they are not actually "unregistering". However, we do have a registered member called dejapseu who may have forgotten that she registered her name without a space.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 3, 2009 5:54:01 GMT
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.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 4, 2009 1:00:19 GMT
I'm the person who sent this thread to déja pseu, who has a blog about style, manners and Parisian things. I also sent her your Oaxaca thread, as the various Mexican (and now, also central-American) cultures are so significant in LA, where she lives.
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