My Paris Pilgrimage #6

Day of the Dead & Beautiful

An overall view through video of just one area of this magnificent cemetery...

It's Sunday morning and at 1030, I have 2 cups of coffee, a banana, and some strawberries in me, and a whole bunch of photo-viewing, email reading, and general computer time behind me.  I miss watching my CBS Sunday Morning show, and I went through the time to download CBS All Access only to find out that Uh-Oh, they won't stream if you're in a different country.  Never mind. Time to share yesterday's wonders.

Pere-Lachaise Cemetery is known in the US mostly because it's where Jim Morrison (1948-1971) of the Doors is buried. He died in Paris, not far from where I'm staying, and his then-girlfriend decided he should remain in Paris, and the government agreed. I guess over time, some thought has been given to moving his body to his home state of Florida, but nothing has ever come of it--neither his estate nor that of his girlfriend (to whom he left most everything [she also died of a drug overdose not long after his death]) has ever seriously worked to make it happen.

OK.  Long side trip down that road! I figured you might be interested because I was interested enough myself to look all that up. Now you don't need to!  Here's a pic of his grave and of the tree nearby covered in used chewing gum (ew). Apparently, leaving a little of your DNA on a tree is considered rebellious and in keeping with Morrison's persona.

Poor tree! At least the keepers have encased it in a bamboo covering so that they can occasionally remove it and mourners can start again one would suppose!

I was impressed to see how unimposing the location of his grave is. Nestled in amongst the thousands...

A close up...it is behind a fence, so you can't get too close.

OK.  Biggest US draw over--I actually left finding his grave for last. I loosely followed Rick Steve's advice to enter the cemetery at a spot near the Gambetta Metro, rather than the Pere-Lachaise Metro so that most of the journey through the acres of graves would be downhill.  I'm glad I did!  I certainly had many, many steps uphill as I lost my way again and again...passing by the same places and not quite knowing how I got turned around!  By the end of the day, I had walked 5.3 miles and climbed 7 flights, and the distances to/from the metros really wasn't that bad...I would say I walked at least 4 miles just inside the cemetery!

Here are some general pictures of the cemetery so you can see how convoluted, crowded, layered, and complex everything was in its 110 acres--I was often almost on top of a grave that I was seeking and couldn't find it!

An unusual paved area through the graves

Note the cobblestones throughout, unless you were on dirt at sides or trudging through tombstones

This shot shows how everything is layered!

So, now you have the general idea of the place. It was overwhelming and wonderful and reverent and imposing, but not a bit spooky.  I often was on a pathway alone and I really did check within to see if I could feel any ghosts or spirits--but I never did feel any strange presences at all.

In addition to seeing a few major names in the arts and sciences among those buried there, I also noted other things from those who were not famous but who were buried with remembrances that made me wonder the circumstances.  Two of the graves that I saw had dogs on the tombs--neither mentioned the dogs in what I could read of the inscriptions.  I even Googled the white Scottie that you see below, but found no details, just a few pics from others who wondered:

This little guy reminded me of the Bobby of Greyfriars legend

Here's a closer look.

Woman with dog at her side...she looks like a woman of letters and in some ways I saw myself in her.

As I walked, I did my best to "see" and not just look at my phone to follow the app I had helping me find certain graves. The "famous" people who I managed to find (and there were many that I didn't find, despite trying!) included these:

• Sarah Bernhardt (she was hidden in a back row and really hard to find!)

• Oscar Wilde: a beacon and martyr for LGBTQ folks--his tomb is encased in plexiglass, but the glass contains hundreds of lip prints (you can see shadows in my pictures), a few messages written in lipstick, and warning signs to not deface the grave:

 

 

• The grave of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas made me sad. It's in disrepair, covered in mildew and the tokens on it were old. Someone did put a red and blue pencil in a cup (to signify her editorial help to all the writers who gathered in her salon) along with the hundreds of stones put there by folks of the Jewish faith to honor her:

• I'm not sure why, but I remember Maria Callas from my childhood--she was an opera singer who was with Aristotle Onassis before Jackie K.  She was cremated and her crypt and plaque were deep within the lower areas of the crematorium.

The stairs down into the crypts

Just one of the crypt areas--this one was well lit, so I took a pic of it to give you an idea...the area had dozens of these halls

Maria's plaque

• I have long been a fan of Edith Piaf, the French singer who sang beautifully and had such a storm-tossed life...she is well-revered by the French and her grave is well kept:

 

The plaque says something like: "Edith, your songs are always new."

• I also saw graves of Honore de Balzac, Marcel Proust, Delacroix, and Moliere. The interesting thing about Moliere is that this cemetery was opened in 1804. Moliere was long dead (1645-1673--reading the Roman numerals was tough--I double-checked on Google), but they moved his body here to encourage the French to use the cemetery!  His grave was difficult to get to...I could see the people near it and knew from my app that I was close, but I was higher than the grave, and couldn't find a way down. I traipsed through graves and leaves until I found the little stairway that I show below:

• Despite it's crowded nature, the cemetery has one whole pathway along the edge devoted to memories of WWII and the French (and other) patriots who died in concentration camps and other campaigns. That area is open and uncrowded. It's quite imposing and a bit difficult to experience.  I took a video of part of it but it's too big a file for this program. I have inserted some stills I took through the area (not even close to showing the power of the tribute) and will post the video on Facebook:

• Another tribute I found endearing were the tombs of those who had died in airplane crashes--I don't recall us having one in San Diego to honor those in the 1978 crash--but that could just be my ignorance.  Here's the plaque from one of their remembrances:

Plaque reads, "a remembrance of all the victims of the plane crash of 3 Jan 2004 who rest here."

• Finally (I'm sure you're glad to read that!), I found the various graves and/or tombs  humorous, interesting, or just plain ominous...

A lovely stone for a fallen soldier

Yves Montand and Simone Signoret are buried together.

An interesting sculpture on a grave so worn that no inscription remained...piqued my curiosity!

One of the more ominous protectors of crypts

These last two are of Victor Noir, someone totally new to me! He apparently was killed under weird circumstances by an official of the government and he is buried with a sculpture of how he looked when he fell.  Note the large protuberance on his crotch that is worn thin.  Legend has it that if you kiss his tomb and rub his crotch, you will be fertile and/or find a husband.  I did neither.

And that, dear reader, was my day of the dead and beautiful...I hope you enjoyed taking this trip with me!