If you go to Paris in your imagination or in person, Permanent Parisians: An Illustrated Guide to the Cemeteries of Paris by Judi Culbertson & Tom Randall (1986+) is a handy book to bring along. I've used it three times while walking around the great Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, which was created by Napoleon I in 1804 and "houses" all sorts of people (or in some cases the heart only) as diverse as Jim Morrison and (Sidonie-Gabrielle) Colette, Guillaume Apollinaire (Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki), Honoré de Balzac, Frédéric Chopin, Jacques-Louis David's heart, Eugène Delacroix, Paul Éluard, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), Marshal Michel Ney, Yves Montand (Ivo Livi), Édith Piaf (Édith Giovanna Gassion), (Valentin Louis Georges Eugène) Marcel Proust, Countess Marie Walewska's heart, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde (Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde) and Richard Wright. And that's just for starters.
In Paris, even the cemeteries are beautiful social spaces.
Today's Rune: Partnership.
7 comments:
My old friend Garrett was fortunate enough to do his first three years of his military hitch, after ROTC'ing college, in northern Germany. He had a great time travelling Europe, at one point meeting Vaclev Havel in a bar in Prague. He also went to the poet's cemetery, where he was treated to the bizarre spectacle of a guy trying to add dirt from Jim Morrison's grave into the joint he was rolling.
Erik, I WILL visit there someday. Hopefully before I need a walker!
We've got to get "across the pond" one of these days. I can't handle the thought of never seeing the Old World first-hand.
I must be thick. I never get any sense of wonder in a cemetery. What do you feel looking at a piece of stone with a name on it. is it the same as reading the name on the binding of a book you just read or hearing the dead ones voice in a song they recorded?
Thanls all for the comments! Johnny, hilarious. Jodi, you will! Lana, definitely. You'd love the white horse markers on green hillsides, the Iron Age forts on hilltops, and all the Stonehenge cousins. All magical.
Mark, it's the feel of cemeteries, as well as the landscaping and architecture of the stonework, I think. Plus a good reminder via memento mori, where we're all headed.
Sounds like a who's who.
I too love cemeteries and PC is one of the best.
I ordered this book a week ago (as well as Permanent Londoners) and Permamnet Parisians was delivered yesterday - the same day as your entry to the blog.
It will be a while before I used the book though, but am off to London in a couple of week, so am looking forward to that book arriving so that I can pick my next cemetery to visit.
Can anyone suggest a good book on Recoleta - I am visiting there in the new year
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