As far as the eye can see

We decided that we better get a little more active this week if we are going to do everything that we wanted to do, so we planned out the entire week. Today we went on a walking tour that we were not able to do three years ago. The Pere Lachaise cemetery was named after Louis the XIV’s Father in the Church who listened to all of his sins! It is a 100 acre, park-like cemetery surrounded by a high wall.

We were able to combine that tour with two others, so we have a busy agenda! We started by taking the Metro to the Eiffel Tower. It is always stunningly majestic to look at. The footings for each corner are huge, and then all of the steel and rivets rising upwards. It is very awe-inspiring to stand under it and look upwards. It is always crowed with many people—about 50 percent tourists and 50 percent gypsies selling or taking things.

This is the starting point for bus #69. It runs end-to-end from the Eiffel Tower to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. It follows along the Seine a lot of the way and drives right through and past all of the areas we are familiar with. It’s just about as good as a hop-on hop-off bus tour but for only $1.50! So after about a 45 minute bus ride, we arrive and grab some lunch and then go in.

Apparently, one must have built a sort of cathedral to be buried there. I’ve never seen such one-up-man-ship as there was there. A mere headstone would never do! Most have a horizontal slab covering the entire grave and then a vertical component as well. Some have a vertical slab, some add a vertical statue or cross, some add a vertical chamber, and some add a vertical temple!

There are some 70,000 “residents” there, with a few who died in the 1100’s, some in the 1600’s, and even some in 2009. There are many memorials dedicated to World War II, some for the French Resistance troops, some for other country’s troops, and some for those who died in the concentration camps. There were a few dedicated to those who perished in recent airplane crashes, probably Air France crashes where there were large numbers of French onboard.

But most notably, the cemetery is known for the many famous people buried there. Our Rick Steves book provides a map of the cemetery with the paths to follow. We saw the tombs of Oscar Wilde, Frederic Chopin, and Jim Morrison (of the Doors who at first was denied burial by the administrator until they told him that he was an author and then was allowed to be buried there!).

But there are others with lesser known names that are very interesting as well. Moliere, a 1600’s comic playwright, gained instant fame when he cracked up Louis the XIV. In 1675, an already ill Moliere was on stage acting the part of a hypochondriac, and after his fake coughs turned into uncontrolled convulsions, he died on stage, as the audience roared with laughter.

The love story of Heloise and Abelard from the 1100’s. The author of the novel “Gigi”, Colette. The composer of “Dut. Dutta dut. Dutta dut-dut-dut. Dutta dut. Dutta dut. Dutta dut dut dut”, or the “William Tell Overture” by Rossini. And Barron Haussmann, who in the 1860’s designed and built most of the Paris we see today.

It was all very interesting and mostly all very beautiful to walk around the park. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many dead people unless it was Arlington Memorial or the Punchbowl Cemetery in Hawaii. They are stacked right next to each other for as far as the eye can see.

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