Yes - Another Cemetery!

I'm still procrastinating on packing - so I'll write up another adventure. Today we finally got around to going across the street to the Cemetery of Montparnasse. This last resting place for Permanent Parisians is in a beautiful park-like setting with many benches for stopping, reading, or enjoying the weather.  Many people were doing that today!  The cemetery is not as old as Pere Lachaise and it does not have as many famous people - but it is worth visiting.  There are many interesting funerary sculptures - several very modern and a few that are outright strange. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking.

I have NO explanation!

Engraved on the fish is - "He makes his choice of anchovies and  he dines on  a sardine."   I have no idea!  

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir

Sartre and de Beauvoir lived just down the street from our apartment on Blvd. Raspail and frequented the cafes of Montparnasse.  The things on the grave are tokens from admirers.  Why there are used bus and metro tickers, I do not know?  You often find these kinds of things on other graves in Paris.  

A not so famous academic but in an interesting sculpture in his library!

Different!

Poet Charles Beaudalaire

Sculptor Henri Laurens' Grave
Sculpture titled Sorrow

St. Denis

On Memorial Day (U.S.) and Lundi de Pentecôte (Day After Pentecost Holiday in France) we took the metro to the city of St. Denis.  This city is one of the suburbs surrounding Paris that has become a largely immigrant community.  However, St. Denis has a history going back to the 400s.  The reason for our visit was to go to the Basilica of St. Denis - the resting place of many French kings and the birth of the Gothic architectural style (1122).  We had not been in many years and the sunny weather (in the 80s) made it a perfect day to get the full impact of the stained glass windows.

The Church has a tumultuous history - especially around the time of the first French Revolution. The Convention called for destruction of  "those mausoleums which recall the terrifying memory of our kings." The "sans-cullotes" descended on St. Denis and destroyed many of the royal graves, piled bones in limestone to speed their disintegration, and melted down the lead coffins for bullets. Gold and silver, relics, and Joan of Arc's sword were taken to Paris and destroyed. Fortunately, one man, Alexandre Lenoir, was given permission to remove some of the mausoleums to Paris for a new museum of French National Monuments.

With the Restoration of the monarchy, Louis the XVIII repaired the damage but the restorers did a horrible job - putting wigs on Crusaders, for example - making the result more humorous than anything.  But the Basilica got a new roof and the ancient stained glass was put back into the frames. The restoration of the mausoleums caused such an uproar that eventually the well-known Neo-Gothic architect Viollet-le-Duc was called in to make things right.

Henri II and Catherine de Medici

In the crypt of the church there are remains of 4th century construction.  The reason for the importance of the site was the burial of St. Denis - the patron saint of Paris.  He was martyred on a hill in Paris (Mont de Martyr which later became known as Montmartre).  The legend is that he picked up his decapitated head and walked to St. Denis and was buried in a Gallo-Roman cemetery.  Early Christians came to the site to worship.  There is a statue of St. Denis holding his head in a park in Montmartre next to a playground!!!

The earliest king buried in the Basilica is Dagobert who died in the 7th Century. Some of the names of Kings/Royalty were of particular interest to us - Philip II The Bold, Philip IV The Good, Philip V The Tall,  Philip VI, Philip of France, Philip son of Louis VI, etc.  No wonder Grand-Mère approved of the name Philip - she loved royalty!  :)

The Basilica (which only became a Cathedral in 1966) is an interesting and easy trip from Paris.  

OUR Day!

Sunday Lunch

Forty years - wow - where has the time gone! We were married May 27, 1972 at the North Long Beach Methodist Church.

My maternal grandparents were among the founding member of the church in the 1920s.  My mom grew up in the church and later was the church secretary.   She "traded" some of her pay for time on their pipe organ when she was learning to play.  As a kid I was always fascinated how anyone could play on several manuals with the hands and play the pedalboard with the feet - at the same time changing stops on both!  I'm still in awe of anyone who can do this!

For those at St. Paul's Episcopal in San Diego, there is an interesting connection between my mom's birth church and Mark Trotter, our preacher in residence and the retired minister of First Methodist Church in San Diego.  His father was minister of North Long Beach Methodist Church in the 1930s.  Small world!

Enough of history....what did we do today?  We previously decided that our big celebration was the trip to Paris where we were engaged in 1971.  We already celebrated with Philip and Megan, Linda and Bob Thomas and Peggy Stewart/Tom Scott - the four Powegians.  So today was OUR day!.

We went to Notre Dame for the 10am service which uses Gregorian Music in the liturgy.  Being Pentecost, the church was full - with the usual tourists circling on the outside aisles flashing away with their cameras.

Here I go again with history - but - Marie-Elisabeth sang in a Gregorian Choir in High School and went on a pilgrimage with the choir to Rome as part of a movement to save Gregorian Music in the mass.  This was during Pope Paul VI's time - shortly after the death of Pope John XXIII when Vatican II was completing reforms that modernized the church.  We both love Gregorian Music and are always glad to hear it at Notre Dame.  The setting is just right.

After the service, we went to lunch at Les Fines Gueules - very difficult to translate but "The Gourmets" is one but the combination of words is ironic.  "Gueule" is a slang word for mouth but combined with "fines" (fine) it becomes gourmet.  Finding a restaurant open on Sundays is sometimes a problem in Paris.  I found this one on the Food Blog of David Lebovitz that I follow.  He praised their cooking of meats and fish - commenting that they really know how to sear the food to get the best flavors.  He was right!   The food was great.  We had a carafe of rosé from Provence.  Before you faint - French rosé is dry and is nothing like the cloyingly sweet American rosés.  It is a perfect chilled wine for a warm day - and it was very warm today in Paris!  M.E. started with a pea veloute - a cold soup of fresh peas.  I got a taste and it was fabulous. 

First Course!

I  had burrata, buffalo mozarella, and ham.  It was incredible - simple - but the addition of small pieces of chopped almonds, sea salt, and a pour of olive oil hit the mark.  A trend in Paris is only using a few very fresh ingredients rather than complicated recipes with multiple ingredients.  It works.

We both had Dorade (Sea Bream) with "market" vegetables.  The fish was cooked to perfection.  Les Fines Gueules goes on our list of restaurants to repeat!  Again - simple but everything was very fresh and cooked well.

Perfectly cooked Dorade! 

Reading the Menu was not about understanding French but required powers of deduction to decipher the writing!  

Then it was back to the bus and to the apartment.  We spent the rest of the day doing absolutely NOTHING!!!

A Dog's Life

"I'll have the Filet"

Waiting for the bus!

Parisians love their dogs!  They go everywhere - in restaurants, stores, trains, metros, bicycle baskets - dogs are part of life. They are well-behaved - usually more so than their human companions. The ubiquitous "piles" on the street are the result of the two-legged animals being thoughtless!

When Jacques Chirac was Mayor of Paris, he deployed an army of "motto-crottes" - city employees on motor scooters with vacuums to clean up the mess.  More recently Paris Mayors have turned to fines with an army of enforcers - up to 200 Euros.  they "say" this has worked! City Hall recently declared that Paris was "No Longer the Dog Mess Capital of the World!"  Now there's a slogan for a City!  

It may be my imagination but I think the problem is less than in the past.  BUT - watch where you walk in Paris!

Helping at the Cake and Bread stall at the Farmers' Market

METRO DOG!

Helping with the Shopping!

Last Trip to the Street Market - How sad!

Flower stall at our market.

I have a lot of catching up to do in recording our time in Paris - but I had to post this about our last trip to the market in front of our apartment. This twice a week farmers' market has been a great plus for this apartment location and a big reason we will be coming back. The apartment has a lot going for it but this street market is the icing on the cake -  "c'est la cerise sur le gâteau!"

I'm going to miss tomatoes that taste like tomatoes; our talkative Algerian olive and spice merchant; fresh vegetables and fruit of every description; cheese vendors with too many choices; butchers with everything including charcuterie; and  I cannot forget the baker with our favorite chocolate pear cake - plus this is all at our doorstep.  We rarely make it to the Sunday Market near home in San Diego but we MUST get there more often.

GIANT white asparagus!

The spice merchant deserves more discussion.  He has every dried fruit and nut known  to man, spices of every description, and at least a dozen different olive preparations.  These "recipes" include olives with couscous/olive oil/basil; couscous/dried tomatoes/olive oil/spices; parsley/spices; couscous/anchovy/herbs; etc. They are all good - even the one with anchovy paste!  He always said that these were his recipes.  Maybe/maybe not - his sales skills deserve more comments!

"Our" olive merchant!

Our olive supplier could sell anything to anyone.  He always remembers us as we walk down the line of stalls and speaks to me in English - he always gives samples.  He treats everyone the same - like they were long lost friends. His usual sales pitch - given with a smile - is that the product your are considering is from his garden in Algeria. With a smile on his face, he told the woman next to us that the dried cranberries (that said Ocean Spray on the sign) were from his garden in Algeria.  Then he said they were from Canada - but she replied that she had seen cranberry bogs in Maine!  The world is indeed small.

Our market is not that unusual - they are all over Paris on different days of the week.  As it is often said, Paris is really just a collection of villages!

Concert at Sainte Chapelle

Sainte Chapelle

On Friday night we went to Sainte Chapelle with Megan, Philip, Linda, Bob, Peggy, and Tom for a concert by Les Violons de France.  The selections were Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Massenet's "La Meditation de Thais," and Saint-Saens' "The Swan"  from Carnival of the Animals. (This "YouTube" link is of Frederic Moreau, Director of Les Violons de France, playing La Meditation. He was the soloist we heard play La Meditation on Friday night.)  The concert was amazing - the violin soloist and director, Frederic Moreau, was....incroyable!

The setting for the concert enhances the music - Sainte Chapelle is almost indescribable.   Pictures never do it justice.  The chapel was built by Louis IX (Saint Louis) to house his collection of relics including the Crown of Thorns.  The church, completed in 1248, is considered one of the highest forms of Flamboyant Gothic architecture.  It also contains the most important collection of 13th Century stained glass in the world, according to many experts. After seeing it, you would agree!

In 1971, Marie-Elisabeth and I attended a concert at Sainte Chapelle on the night we were engaged in Paris!

A Walk Through Père Lachaise...Cemetery

Unknown Person - is it the old man reflecting on the life of the young man?

That's right - a tour of a cemetery!  Père Lachaise is one of the most visited sites in Paris - in fact it is reputed to be the most visited Cemetery in the world!  It is the resting place of the "who's who" of French society - as well as many well-known expatriates from the rest of the world who made Paris their home - or who just happened to be in the City of Light when they "met their end."  There are moving sculptural tributes to those who perished in the Holocaust and forced labor camps.

Père Lachaise is also part of the history of the Paris.  The Commune of 1871 culminated here with the execution of  175 "Communards." The wall where they were executed became a symbol of the French Left.  This was the first uprising by the working classes since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.  The executions did not end the repression - many executions, prison sentences, and deportations to New Caledonia, the French penal colony in the South Pacific, continued after the fall of the Commune.

During one of our stays in Paris in the 1990's, I read the book  Paris Babylon - The Story of the Paris Commune while sitting on benches near the sites talked about in the book!  The wall in Père Lachaise is very real to me; the book gave me a better understanding about the deprivations during and after the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War and the conditions of the working classes in this neighborhood.

But the cemetery is more than history, the home of 300 cats, or the last resting place of the famous and infamous.  It is a beautiful setting - a park-like expanse with trees and hillside paths that wind between the beautiful and quirky funerary art!  Headstones are more than a plaque on the ground.  There are elaborate sculptures, family chapels, and even a touch of humor!  A recent tomb of an artist has a plaque that says - in French  - Alone at Last!

I have been taking people on tours of Pere Lachaise for many years - the first tours were for Marie-Elisabeth's students from her summer program at the Sorbonne.  Later I did tours for both of my mom's "Tina's Travelers" trips to Paris. Since then, I've taken friends and family on a walk through time and history in this interesting site of French/Parisian history.  I found a way to give people an oversight of this massive cemetery without stumbling around for hours to find the sites they would find most interesting.  I concentrated on people Americans would know along with lesser known "Permanent Parisians" with interesting stories or unusual funerary tributes. There are so many stories in Pere Lachaise - one could study the cemetery for years.  

Frederic Chopin - The Tomb says "Fred Chopin"

The founding of the cemetery is a good story in itself.  People were traditionally buried in church yards in Paris.  Unaware of the sanitary issues, more and more burials took place to the point the bones were protruding from church cemeteries.  The final incident that caused a furor was when caskets broke through into the basement of a building adjoining a church burial ground.  Napoleon ordered that new sites were to be found and no more burials were to take place in Paris church yards.

Pere Lachaise - originally known as the "Cemetery of the East"  - was owned by the Jesuits.  The confessor of Louis XIV - Pere Lachaise - lived on the site.  The property eventually fell into private hands.  A clever city planner, Nicolas Frochot,  purchased the property from the Baron Desfontaines for a bargain basement price - 18 years later Frochot sold the Barron a plot for his own burial that was 282 times the price he had been paid for the entire property!

Frochot also came up with a novel way of attracting people to use the Cemetery - which was at that time out in the country and far from Paris.  He moved famous people to Père Lachaise!  Moliere, La Fontaine, Heloise and Abelard were moved.  The trend continued so that Père Lachaise is THE place to be buried in the French capital.

Jim Morrison - The bust has been stolen, graffiti has to be constantly cleaned, the site is fenced, and is often guarded!  Is he really here?  Mr. Mojo Risin!   

I could go on for pages on the stories of some of the tombs - but I will end with a partial list of those buried here:

• Moliere
• Chopin
• Bizet
• Balzac
• Yves Montand 
• Edit Piaf
• Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas
• Jim Morrison (The Doors)
• Sarah Bernhardt
• Isadora Duncan
• Rossini
• Pissarro
• Poulenc
• Oscar Wilde
• Proust

Oscar Wilde - a plastic barrier had to be erected around the base!  A tradition of kissing the tomb with lipstick was causing the stone to deteriorate - it could not be cleaned!!! 

Pere Lachaise - worth the visit!