Day 31 - Walk #19 in a cemetery

I slept in for quite a while this morning. It felt so good especially since I haven't slept in for two weeks! Then I got ready and decided to head out on a walk. Since most people already did this walk while I was having class and studying on Tuesday, I decided to do it by myself. I am so glad that I did. The title of the walk is this - Parisian Necropolis: The Cimeitère du Père-Lachaise. It was really cool to experience the ambience of the cemetary by myself. Of course, there were other tourists there but in some places that I went, I was alone with my thoughts. It was awesome. There are over 70, 000 tombs and the plot is 188 acres. Pretty amazing. I highly recommend visiting here if you are ever in Paris. Robert Kern. He sounds familiar, but I don't know why.

It looks like a grenade.

So the first tomb we were supposed to find was that of Seurat (1859-91). I guess this is it because it was in the area that the guidebook said it would be in. But his name was George-Pierre Seurat. Oh well.

This is the tomb of "Enrico" Cerniushi (1821-96). I put the first name in quotes because the tomb says his first name is Henri. I don't know why the writer of this walk said it was Enrico. Anyway, "Cernuschi was a politician and banker who moved to Paris and donated his collection of Far-Eastern art to a museum bearing his name."

"Alphand (1817-91) was the man responsible for the creation of many parks in Paris during the Second French Empire."

"Long before Cher or Madonna, Colette (1873-1954) earned her right to one-name fame by writing novels." Don't feel bad if you don't know who these people are. I didn't know who most of them that were pointed out in the walk book because a lot have to do with French history. If you do know them, kudos.

"Visconti (1791-1853) looks content with his life's accomplishments - and so he should! He was the architect for both the expanded Louvre and for Napoleon's tomb at the Invalides."

This is the Monument aux Morts. "This sculpture consumed ten years of Paul-Albert Bartholomé's life. After the death of his wife in 1888, he began work on this sculpture. The finished monument was unveiled in front of nearly one-hundred thousand visitors in 1899. The work evokes a somber, sorrowful, yet touchingly hopeful view of death as mean, women, and children on either side of the central opening await their turn to pass through to the other side. The hand of a woman on the shoulder of a man offers comfort." When the writer of this walk came here, the arm had been broken off. It has now been replaced, but you can't even tell.

This is a Lebanese cedar that was planted in 1870. "A living link to the past."

This is Francois Arago (1786-1853). "He was a member of the provisional government after the revolution of 1848. He helped to abolish slavery in the French colonies.

One is a woman's arm, the other is that of a man. Precious :)

This is the tomb of Héloïse and Abélard, legendary lovers of the 12th century. From Eyewitness Travel: Paris, "It was in the cloisters of Notre-Dame that the romance between the monk Pierre Abélard and the young Héloïse began. Abélard was the most original theologian of the 12th century and was hired as a tutor to the 17-year-old niece of a canon. A love affair soon developed between the teacher and his pupil. In his wrath, Héloïse's uncle had the scholar castrated; Héloïse took refuge in a convent for the rest of her life." At least it ended well - they were buried together.

Etienne-Gaspard Roberson (1763-1837) is buried here. "He was an 18th century physics demonstrator who specialized in magic lantern shows that used phantasmagorical projections to delight and frighten audiences. It is a pretty awesome tomb. Here are some close-ups.

This is where Jim Morrison (1943-71) is buried. His premature death is a mystery. The instructions in the guidebook on how to get here were a bit vague, "follow the crowds and the scent of marijuana to his grave." After getting mixed up a couple of time, I finally found it. It would probably be cooler if I even knew who he was. All I know is that he was the lead singer of the Doors, whoever they are...

This tombstone is so old, it has become a part of the tree! Can you see it?

An open tomb! I so wanted to look inside, but I was too chicken that I would actually see bones or who knows what.

I thought this grave was particularly symbolic. Life coming from death.

This is the statue on top of Casimir Perier (1777-1832). "He was a politician with deep pockets and close ties to the king."

Okay, so this cat kind of looks like Oliver, so I wanted to take a picture. But the old man kept looking at me. So when he was looking at the cat, I snapped a picture. Unfortunately he turned at that moment, so I pretended I was taking pictures of the tombs. Haha awkward...

The sculpture on top of Chopin's grave, though I didn't know it was his grave when I took it.

Chopin (1810-49) is buried right here.

Vivant Denon (1747-1825). "He worked for Louis XV, then fled to Venice during the French Revolution, but he eventually got a job working for Napoleon Bonaparte. he accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt and helped organiaze expeditions all over Europe to pillage - oh, I mean, curate - works of art for what was to become the Louvre museum."

A brand new grave right next to one covered in moss. So cool.

As I was going up to Géricault's (1781-1826) grave, I saw a funeral going on. Just as I was approaching the tomb, an old man came up to me and started speaking French. I thought he was telling me that I needed to go away because there was a funeral going on. I told him, "Je ne parle pas francais." Then a lady with him started talking to me, telling me that the man wanted to show a grave of a singer. I told her I just wanted to see Géricault's grave. Then she left me alone. It slightly marred my experience, but it was still awesome to see his grave.

So cool. Afterwards, the lady was standing at the end of the road, waiting for me. She said that I should join them since I was alone. I told her that I was fine and she left me alone for good this time. They were kind of freaking me out so I was glad to see that last of them. The directions to get to the next tomb: "Go left up chemin du Bassin - oh, and when I say up, I mean it. This is where the real hike begins." Either they have made the paths different since this guy wrote the walk or he is kind of a wimp, but there was no hiking involved. It was a leisurely walk for me.

This is actor Léon Noel (1844-1913), "whose best review is inscribed on the pedestal."

The cemetary is kind of like a city so it has roadsigns like this all over. Pretty cool.

Comic playwright Molière (1622-73) is buried here along with the fabulist Jean de La Fontaine (1621-95).

On my way to this grave, I was supposed to find a plate with the name Corinne Heiss-Ciss (1959-2003) on it. I never did find it. When the writer of this walk came, it had a message to visitors on it: "Passerby-Visitors...etc. This tomb does not house a celebrity, but a simple young woman. She was a mother, a sister, a daughter, all this to satisfy your morbid curiosity since the name plate is frequently stolen." Maybe it was stolen again or removed so that it wouldn't be stolen. Or maybe I just couldn't find it.
Anyway, this grave is that of Allan Kardec (1804-69). "He was the founder of the doctrine of spiritism. His is said to be the most visited and the most flowered tomb at the cemetary."

This is the crematorium. It was built in 1889.

I would have looked around more in the Columbarium (where the ashes are put along with a name plate for that particular person), but it was kind of freaky. Which is weird, since I had been walking around a cemetary. Eyewitness says that Isadora Duncan's ashes are housed here.

It is crazy how many people are in here.

The tomb of Alice Ozi (?-1893). "She was an actress, and her elaborate tomb might have something to do with the fact that she was the mistress of not one, but three famous men: Henri Eugène Philippe Louis d'Orléans, the duc d'Aumale (that's a mouthful); Théophile Gautier; and Gustave Doré."

The backside of Oscar Wilde's (1848-1900) tomb. That's a lot of lipstick...

"Immortalized in stone as a giant naked sphinx, the author of the Portrait of Dorian Gray (which I have yet to read) managed to cause a scandal even in death. A bronze fig leaf was added to the naked sphinx to placate the sensitive public, but it didn't take long for the leaf to become a trophy hung around the neck of some dandy in the Latin Quarter. Today, fans of Wilde show their appreciation in a less destructive way: kissing the tomb with freshly applied lipstick." Gross.

This is the tomb of "young journalist-turned-fertility-god" Victor Noir (1848-70).

"At age 22, Noir was sent on behalf of a politician to arrange a duel with Prince Pierre Bonaparte, the great-nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and cousin of the Emperor Napoleon III. An argument broke out and Bonaparte shot the messenger. Pierre was acquitted thanks to his cousin, and more than 100,000 people attended Noir's funeral as a form of protest. In 1891, Noir's remains were transferred to Père-Lachaise, and a life-size bronze statue of the murdered journalist was place on the tomb. Whether true-to-life or a sign of the sculptor's generosity, a certain prominent part of Noir's anatomy has become a fertility charm for women seeking to get pregnant. A fence was installed in 2005 to discourage unwanted polishing, but protesters insisted on their rights to access this magical power, and the fence was removed."

Then I ventured into the more serious memorials. This "is a memorial to an unknown person deported from France to "work" and then die at the hands of Nazis.

This monument is for those who died in the Oranienburg concentration camp.

This is for those who died in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

This is for those who died at Auschwitz. It is a "grim reminder of man's inhumanity to man."

This is a replica of the memorial at Dachau, "site of the prototypical Nazi concentration camp."

Memorial for those who were killed in the Holocaust.

This wall honors the victims of the Commune. "The history of the Commune is a complicated one, but in brief, it involved an uprising of the people of Paris at the beginning of the Third Republic. Napoleon III had been defeated and Adolph Thiers was elected president of the new Republic (read: wannabe king), and the newly elected National Assembly was dominated by royalist sympathizers. When Thiers ordered that cannons (leftovers from the Franco-Prussian War) be taken from the national guard in Paris, violence broke out, and two of Thiers' generals were killed. Thiers withdrew to Versailles--a move that did nothing to foster a feeling of democratic rule--and sent his army to take over Paris.

In one week, known now as Bloody Week, (21-28 May: the date inscribed on the wall), much of Paris was reduced to ruins and more than 20,000 rebels were killed. This wall, called the Mur des Fédérés, in the Père-Lachaise cemetery is where the last Communard rebels were gunned down. After the violence, the government did its best to rease the memory of the Commune. When Thiers died, he was given a glorious funeral and burial in a massive tomb right in the middle of this same cemetery."

That concluded the prescribed walk, so I wandered around for a little while.

This was the last picture I was able to take. It started pouring and hailing on me after this. As I was just about to exit the cemetery, I looked back. Behind me was the largest, unbroken rainbow I have ever seen. It was beautiful. I would have taken a picture, but the rain was persisting.

It was a good day.