http://vintagegoodness.com/my-favorite-2016-vintage-finds/ The day was bright and sunny and we decided to embark on a walking tour from our book “Walking Paris” titled Pere-Lachaise to Buttes Chaumont. Starting the day in a cemetery may not seem like fun, but since William Miller, the owner and builder of our house, was a marble worker responsible for some of the stones in Hollywood Cemetery back in Richmond and since we have, over time, developed an affinity for such places, we said why not?
http://icrapoport.com/plate_8_shortbox_cropped/ The cemetery was beautiful. But the walking tour is impossible without a GPS equipped device to reinforce or guide you to the correct path.
The cemetery consists of about 110 acres and is the final resting place of notables like: Charles Garnier (1825-1898), Gracchino Rossini, Jim Morrison of the Doors, Moliere, Delacroix, Honore de Balzac, Marcel Proust, Isadora Duncan, Maria Callas, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, and Edith Piaf among others. A map is available at the entrance and is highly recommended to find your way.
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 Pere Lachaise cemetery |
 A cemetery always has its statues |
 Pretty ostentatious, don't you think? |
By coincidence, I had just finished a mystery novel by Cara Black called “Murder in the Sentier.” In it, she references the practice whereby if the family fails to continue to pay rent on the plot in French cemeteries, the remains are exhumed and placed in a repository with other defaulters. Don’t think I want to buried in France!
Back to the walk, the villages in the east end of Paris were populated by craftsmen and gardeners, who located outside the walls of Paris where the cost of living was so much lower. Ultimately, these areas have been subject to development that failed to account for their historic value, some trails even dated to the Middle Ages. A pretty little village named Belleville has been transformed to urban ugliness. In fact, as we wandered the area, questioning looks from the residents indicated that we were not in a part of Paris normally visited by tourists.
The tour ended at Les Buttes Chaumont, a 55 acre park, that took the place of a very unsavory part of Paris. It was created in 1863-5 by order of Napoleon III.
We headed back to the 2nd arrondissement by bus to get a view of the area and neighborhoods – not necessarily a must-do on any tourist’s list. All in all, we clocked in 8 1/2 miles today!
