romeo and juliet, an astronaut and homemade crepes
Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Tuesday, August 23, 2011
So I know I've got a few days to catch up on here, and I'll surely give you a play by play.
Sunday
I visited the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, which contained more dead people than I think that I could have ever imagined, literally. I have to believe that 99% of the people buried here have been photographed exponentially more times dead than alive (one because cameras weren't available then). I also don't think that you can ever understand the size and amount of graves there are unless you visit, because I know I sincerely would have never got it if someone told me. Nonetheless, it was a cool experience and an enjoyable five-hundred-hour walk (of which I probably only covered about 60% of it). That is also minus the 10 minutes of downpour that happened - which I thought was kind of creepy given I was in a cemetery and the whole rest of the weekend has been bloody hot and sunny. I took shelter in the columbarium fyi.
The cemetery is so large, it is 118.6 acres, the site of three World War I memorials, and contains over 300,000 bodies. This does not include those cremated in the columbarium - which is two stories tall.
There are many famous people buried here as well, including Chopin (composer), Heloise and Peter Abelard (the real Romeo and Juliet), Oscar Wilde (poet) and Joseph Fourier (that mathematician and phycisist famous for discovering Fourier series - you know, the stuff we needed to analyze our data from the parabolic flights).
Of course there are many others, but I have to say, though I was given a map of the 97 divisions of the cemetery, I still had a hard time finding some of the graves, finally gave up, and just enjoyed walking around and looking at all the elaborate designs of the headstones, tombs etc and to see what I could find to be the oldest. Many of Napoleon's high ranking men are buried here as well. It was also a bit sad at times because some of the engravings are so incredibly worn down that I couldn't even make out the letters, even if I couldn't read the actual wording (because it's in French).
All in all it was an oddly enjoyable experience. I am still a little overwhelmed though by just in fact how large it is and how many people are there. (When I initially looked at my map, I realized I had only gone not even a quarter length of the cemetery when I though I had to have been, at minimum 80% of the way through - soooooo large.)
After the cemetery, I was going to go to the Paris Plages for an afternoon read (since it was the last day too) but I had spent much much longer at the cemetery than I thought I would and I had done a lot more walking too so I decided to head home. For dinner, Thomas and Marie made crepes for authenticity. There are two different kinds - salty and sweet. We first had cheese, tomato and egg ones and then followed by a 'surprise' of Thomas. Marie requested no surprise and just Nutella, which I promptly agreed with, but we shared one so he could make another one for us out of his disappointment of simply choosing the wonderful Nutella. It was chocolate and bananas. The whole meal was great, and we also enjoyed it with cider, a typical beverage with crepes. They had gotten this one from an apple orchard in Brittany so it was also authentic.
During our dinner, Thomas reinforced (as he has previously admitted) that the French, particularly Parisians, are proud people. Therefore, when talking about cheese, even though I go to school in Wisconsin, I was asked, "Ok.. but have you had real cheese? You just may think you have." I guess that settles that - so the next event will be a wine and cheese night - with real cheese. I am very much enjoying living here and Nathaniel is super cute too - and very much in love with shoes and cars.
Sunday
I visited the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, which contained more dead people than I think that I could have ever imagined, literally. I have to believe that 99% of the people buried here have been photographed exponentially more times dead than alive (one because cameras weren't available then). I also don't think that you can ever understand the size and amount of graves there are unless you visit, because I know I sincerely would have never got it if someone told me. Nonetheless, it was a cool experience and an enjoyable five-hundred-hour walk (of which I probably only covered about 60% of it). That is also minus the 10 minutes of downpour that happened - which I thought was kind of creepy given I was in a cemetery and the whole rest of the weekend has been bloody hot and sunny. I took shelter in the columbarium fyi.
The cemetery is so large, it is 118.6 acres, the site of three World War I memorials, and contains over 300,000 bodies. This does not include those cremated in the columbarium - which is two stories tall.
There are many famous people buried here as well, including Chopin (composer), Heloise and Peter Abelard (the real Romeo and Juliet), Oscar Wilde (poet) and Joseph Fourier (that mathematician and phycisist famous for discovering Fourier series - you know, the stuff we needed to analyze our data from the parabolic flights).
Of course there are many others, but I have to say, though I was given a map of the 97 divisions of the cemetery, I still had a hard time finding some of the graves, finally gave up, and just enjoyed walking around and looking at all the elaborate designs of the headstones, tombs etc and to see what I could find to be the oldest. Many of Napoleon's high ranking men are buried here as well. It was also a bit sad at times because some of the engravings are so incredibly worn down that I couldn't even make out the letters, even if I couldn't read the actual wording (because it's in French).
All in all it was an oddly enjoyable experience. I am still a little overwhelmed though by just in fact how large it is and how many people are there. (When I initially looked at my map, I realized I had only gone not even a quarter length of the cemetery when I though I had to have been, at minimum 80% of the way through - soooooo large.)
Looking down a hill of the cemetery - they go on foreverrrrrr.
This looks like something from Hocus Pocus.
The real Romeo and Juliet (though under renovation construction.
So large, they have to have "reassembly points" for people to know how to meet up when they get lost...
This is a whole square two stories for cremations.
During our dinner, Thomas reinforced (as he has previously admitted) that the French, particularly Parisians, are proud people. Therefore, when talking about cheese, even though I go to school in Wisconsin, I was asked, "Ok.. but have you had real cheese? You just may think you have." I guess that settles that - so the next event will be a wine and cheese night - with real cheese. I am very much enjoying living here and Nathaniel is super cute too - and very much in love with shoes and cars.
Nathaniel!
Monday and Today
Well, it was back to the work week, that's for sure. I guess there isn't too much more to say. Today I got to e-mail an astronaut - legitimately. I felt very cool. (if you know me, that's not sarcasm - at all). We also had a 'farewell lunch' for Thomas, who is leaving at the end of the week for a new job - though he said he'd be stopping by for visits because it's not far. I forgot when I found this too, but during one of my stops of wandering around Paris, this train station had a cool ceiling of mosaic tiles.