So you tell people you're going to spend a week in Paris and they say ," wow, that's cool". Then they say "what are you going to do in Paris?" and you tell them you're going to visit two cemeteries and they look at you quite strangely!
So guess what Joani and I have been up to the last few days. Going to a couple of cemeteries!
Are we cool or what? Before you think "or what" let me explain.
The Cimetière du Père-Lachaise is a bona fide tourist spot that contains the remains of such luminaries as the famed musician Frederic Chopin, Rockstar Jim Morrison, painter George Seurat, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust and a host of other famous people. So that was one of the cemeteries we visited and we placed flowers on some of the graves that were more meaningful to us, to pay tribute.
Chopin
Jim Morrison
Edith Piaf
Definitely a cool moment!
We visited several other graves including George Seurat's which was cool but a very low key family site.
Couldn't find Modigliani, which was disappointing and avoided Oscar Wilde. ( If you've read "the Portrait Of Dorian Grey" ) You'll perhaps understand why.
All in all creepy ,
But cool!
The second cemetery we visited was in Auvers sur Oise, where Vincent Van Gogh was buried. You'll understand why we wanted to go there. I took a sunflower, (Vincent's favourite flower) to pay tribute, said hello, introduced him to Joani and told him how much his art was loved in the world today. It was a very emotional visit. Joani talked about how she could feel him walking around the town with his paints, easel and canvas strapped to his back and I also could feel his presence.
The town where this cemetery is housed now seems to have an economy built around his gravesite which is funny being as how people really didn't like him when he was alive.
The Poster below is of one of his last paintings before he died. "Wheatfield with Crows." and I'm standing where Vincent would have stood when he painted this.
Another emotional moment!
Traveling around the world has always been fun, educational, and enlightening, but this day was sad, He was 37 years old when he died! Unrecognized for his genius. Poor, misunderstood, and disturbed. It would be years before most people started to acknowledge how great an artist he was.
What a waste.
The last part of this post will also be a tribute to someone who's long gone.
Napoleon.
Also a genius, albeit a military genius, so what's odd about the rest of this post is that I'll admit I feel differently about him than the artists I wrote about earlier. I'm not a fan of violence or war but both are part of the world we live in and Napoleon was a genius in the art of war.
Of course there is also the blockbuster movie released last year starring "Joaquin Phoenix".
All in all, since Joani and I were in Paris we decide we would go to see his Tomb.
It is located at Les Invalides, The Military Museum, so after Visiting Musee Rodin which was right across the street, we crossed over and headed into the largest group of buildings we had been to yet and almost immediately found out that in order to actually see Napoleon's Tomb, we would have to pay upwards of $60 CDN. to see it.
It was an easy decision for Joani and me to pass on this. After all we saw Van Gogh's grave for free. Same cost for Edith Piaf, George Seurat, Jim Morrison, Frederic Chopin, and with all of that I just couldn't see myself paying for the right to see someone who was for all intents purposes a specialist in killing.
We did get far enough to see this.
Don't mean to offend any Napoleon fans.
Garry
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