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So last week I was in Paris...
I walked until my feet went into overheating (30 kilometers a day, will do this to you after the 3rd day). I saw a lot of things.
Some I expected.
Some I welcomed like old friends
Among the things I wanted to do was a visit to Cimetière Montmartre. I'd try to sneak in last time I was in Paris for fun but they close extremely early - like 16:00 - and I got kicked out almost immediately. So I vowed I would be back.
Now, I have come to expect a few things from cemeteries - angels, weeping statues, etc. - but I had not quite expected this particular view to greet me not even 10 minutes into my visit:
Then again, despite the fact that nakedness is often reserved for the female body - no comment - you can still encounter the odd naked figure, such as this gentleman:
Which a tweaked visit to the back renders to light...
Not sure where he's going...
Another unexpected grave marker was this prickly one:
Mourir? Plutôt crever! (roughly translates as "Die? I'd rather croak!")
Err.
Yes. Why not.
(but then again: why?)
All this - in what is a fairly small cemetery, by the way - meant that by the time I came to the grave sight of Vaslav Nijinski, I wasn't too fazed about seing him depicted as an old clown with bell on:
(Actually he is represented as playing the doll Petruska. I don't think the beads were intended. Hardly a flatering image, though.)
But it wasn't only the statues that gave me pause. I also spotted this on a monument:
Yes. It is a door knocker.
And before you ask: yes, I HAVE knocked.
No response. Either nobody was at home or they were just playing dead.
Having shown you all this, please note that there are plenty of lovely monuments as well, some looking very familiar indeed:
(Hey, last time I saw this guy, he was carved in marble and posing at San Pietro in Vincoli!)
I can invite you guys to check out the whole set on Flickr.
Or to visit the cemetery itself. It comes complete with the usual complement of stray cats, most of them shy. But this little one RAN to me and jumped on my lap, demanding a cuddle:
And how could I say no?
(Besides, I do not think it was even an option)
I suppose you should always, in some ways, pay the ferryman...
I walked until my feet went into overheating (30 kilometers a day, will do this to you after the 3rd day). I saw a lot of things.
Some I expected.
Some I welcomed like old friends
Among the things I wanted to do was a visit to Cimetière Montmartre. I'd try to sneak in last time I was in Paris for fun but they close extremely early - like 16:00 - and I got kicked out almost immediately. So I vowed I would be back.
Now, I have come to expect a few things from cemeteries - angels, weeping statues, etc. - but I had not quite expected this particular view to greet me not even 10 minutes into my visit:
Then again, despite the fact that nakedness is often reserved for the female body - no comment - you can still encounter the odd naked figure, such as this gentleman:
Which a tweaked visit to the back renders to light...
Not sure where he's going...
Another unexpected grave marker was this prickly one:
Mourir? Plutôt crever! (roughly translates as "Die? I'd rather croak!")
Err.
Yes. Why not.
(but then again: why?)
All this - in what is a fairly small cemetery, by the way - meant that by the time I came to the grave sight of Vaslav Nijinski, I wasn't too fazed about seing him depicted as an old clown with bell on:
(Actually he is represented as playing the doll Petruska. I don't think the beads were intended. Hardly a flatering image, though.)
But it wasn't only the statues that gave me pause. I also spotted this on a monument:
Yes. It is a door knocker.
And before you ask: yes, I HAVE knocked.
No response. Either nobody was at home or they were just playing dead.
Having shown you all this, please note that there are plenty of lovely monuments as well, some looking very familiar indeed:
(Hey, last time I saw this guy, he was carved in marble and posing at San Pietro in Vincoli!)
I can invite you guys to check out the whole set on Flickr.
Or to visit the cemetery itself. It comes complete with the usual complement of stray cats, most of them shy. But this little one RAN to me and jumped on my lap, demanding a cuddle:
And how could I say no?
(Besides, I do not think it was even an option)
I suppose you should always, in some ways, pay the ferryman...