Advertisement
Published: July 24th 2016
Edit Blog Post
Woolly says – I’ve started my day in some strange places but this one takes the biscuit....talking of biscuits I seem to have finished mine! As I stood listening to the girls bickering and consulting a map on the wall, I sighed, it was going to be a long day......I wonder if Jo has any biscuits left? Just as I thought it might be an opportunity to ask, the women set off leaving me to follow behind......I wonder if there might be a shop selling biscuits? It did seem unlikely given all the grave stones that were surrounding me. Three packets of biscuits had already been consumed and I had been ignoring his baleful stares as I tried to eat mine, plus I might need them to bribe him with later! Woolly says – as I trotted through what was apparently division 2 it appeared that we were on the hunt for dead people and according to our information this was the place to find them. Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris (44 hectares or 110 acres) and it’s claim to fame is it’s famous inhabitants, Jo had reeled off a load of names that I have never heard of and have no idea of and seeing Zoe’s face neither did she but we both smiled sweetly as we set off to find number 20, Sarah Bernhardt....... who!
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress. She was referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known", and is regarded as one of the finest actors of all time. The hunt however wasn’t proving easy as the cemetery is split into divisions and once you find that division you have to find the grave with only a name to go on. Woolly says – A long twenty minutes followed and we still hadn’t found Sarah at number 20, I suggested we move onto the next on the list, Jim at number 30. As I started to look round I found some lovely monuments to those that have been lost, some very gothic in design with modern concepts creeping into some areas, one sensible family had a huge Obelisk which could be seem for miles so at least they could find it again! As I wandered though family after family I could hear the birds cheeping and the wind gently blowing the fallen leaves, rather pleasant I thought as I headed into a barely marked path to find my way blocked by people, maybe I’d found someone of interest.
As we followed his tail round a corner I was delighted to have finally found at least one person on my list. Woolly says – It turns out that Jim at number 30 was in fact the legendary Jim Morrison (December 8th 1943 – July 3rd 1971) an American singer, songwriter, and poet best remembered as the lead singer of the Doors. He had developed an alcohol dependency during the 1960s, which affected his performances on stage and sadly died at the age of 27 in Paris, apparently from an accidental heroin overdose. His grave was inauspicious in comparison to others but with it’s fence to keep fans out there were lots of flowers to celebrate his life and work. Feeling rather chuffed with myself I led the way through another maze of graveyards and found myself admiring Chopin’s last resting place, I was on a roll. Frédéric François (1st March 1810 – 17
th October 1849), was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era who wrote primarily for the solo piano. At the age of 21 he settled in Paris and during the last 18 years of his life, he gave only 30 public performances, he died in Paris in 1849, at the age of 39, probably of tuberculosis. With two down and the hours passing quickly we decided to try and find one more before attempting to find our way out again.
Woolly says – We seemed to have walked for several miles more before I spotted a crowd of people and guessing that humans equated to someone famous I dashed over to cast my eye over an almost Egyptian monument to the late Oscar Wilde. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16th October 1854 – 30th November 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays The Importance of being Ernest and his lifestyle which at the time resulted him being imprisoned for gross indecency with men. He died destitute in Paris at the age of 46. All this walking and grave spotting had left me a little peckish but Jo and Zoe were one step ahead of me and were heading or the exit and the nearest café.
Coffee, snacks and drinks consumed and we left the mammoth in charge of navigating us round the metro system once more to the Catacombs. Woolly says – I had been looking forward to this part of the trip and having led us on and off a variety of trains I puffed my way up the stairs and into the bright sunshine and a queue longer than my lifespan! We spent ten minutes trying to find the end before deciding that maybe coming back later would mean a reduced waiting time...well we could live in hope! Back into the depths once more, two more trains and we popped up at one of the finest sights in Paris, I sped off as the other two took a more sedate pace. I wondered how long it would take for him to realise that instead of taking the steps we could arrive at the top by funicular, I counted to 10 before he arrived back! Woolly says – well I don’t want them getting lost without me! As we waited for the small train to arrive I happily told the waiting passengers about the Sacre-Coeur Basilica which is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city it is a double monument, being both political and cultural, a national penance for the defeat of France in the 1871 Franco-Prussian War and the socialist Paris Commune of 1871. Designed by Paul Abadie construction began in 1875 and was finished in 1914. My new admiring fans smiled happily at me as we climbed on board and heading up the hill. Bless him if he had told them all in mandarin they might have understood! Woolly says – the building is amazing and as we waited for the girls bags to be checked I strolled inside to admire the huge dome. High above my head it was plain but had four lovely angles carved below it, as we strolled through the church the windows and painting gave a lovely lighting and having sat for a while I decided that it was probably the best alter we had seen with it’s large arches behind and silverwork below the incredible mosaic of Jesus. With the crowds building we set off once more and as we descended into the underground yet again, I thought the females were mad....well that’s nothing new to be fair!
We probably were mad as our trip involved going back through the city and retrying the catacombs, two more trains and we arrived at an even longer queue..... Woolly says – I’m not sure what she expected but before she could come up with anymore silly ideas I sat down at a nearby restaurant and refused to move until my needs had been considered. .......Ok I was wrong and having paid my penance in drinks and snacks for the small beast we deliberated on what to do next. Woolly says – My suggestion of the Picasso museum was met with approval so back we went once more into the depths of the city, I’ll turn into a mole at this rate! A further two trains and a short walk through the city streets took us to what appeared to be the museum, I strolled past the security men only to hear a shout behind me, looking round the one man was indicating that the exhibit had closed.....five minutes ago! I tried begging and pleading but this man was not to be moved even when offered a pistachio and one of my winning smiles.
Trying to console him we sat on a bench and reflected that maybe the day hadn’t gone according to plan but we can always revisit the city....yep add it onto the ongoing list Woolly!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.631s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 49; qc: 177; dbt: 0.2396s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.8mb