le cimetière père lachaise

for my preliminary french class (we had a two-week intensive french class before our real classes started) i had to go to père lachaise and then do a short presentation about my experience.  i went by myself on a monday morning so there weren't very many people there. at first i thought it was odd and a bit irreverent that père lachaise is such a big tourist spot since it is a cemetery after all but once i got there i understood the draw:  not only is it the resting place of famous painters, composers, musicians and literary and political figures but it is also a very beautiful and serene place to explore by yourself.  before i left i had made a list of all the famous people who were buried there who i wanted to see but when i got there and saw how huge the cemetery was, i realized that it would take forever to find them all so i ended up just wandering around.  what struck me was the mix of styles of tombs: some were old as the 18th century, others were more recent, some were elaborately ornamented while others were quite simple.  i also loved the scope of the place.  you could certainly get lost in the forest of stone.

i did end up going to the crematorium to see isadora duncan's ashes.  i also happened upon the tombs of eugene delacroix and georges bizet. consequently i can't stop listening to carmen and bolero on my walks to school in the morning :)