Bonjour Paris!

We arrived at our cozy chez soi loin de chez soi late last night after an incredibly long day (the kids flight back to the US left Seville at 6:30 AM). All we could do, once here in the City of Light, was pick up some supplies and call it a night.

Today, we woke up eager for our first full day in Paris.
Our destination was Montmartre but first we had to take the Metro (whose construction began in 1898). There is just something so cool about going underground and popping out in some completely different part of town. Though popping out in the Abbesses Metro station is like no other. Not only is it one of only three remaining Art Nouveau entrances in Paris, it happens to be the deepest of all the stations... 8 stories below the surface. It was an arduous 182 steps to exit and boy was I panting!
But the view was worth it. Crafted by the visionary Hector Guimard at the turn of the 20th century, this entrance epitomizes the Art Nouveau aesthetic, characterized by its emphasis on natural forms and structures, with a profusion of intertwined flowers and plants giving rise to elegant curves. I love this!
With the day being blustery, a hat was in order. We had to stop for a black beret. It really was necessary.

We devoured all that we discovered here. What fun is this? The Wall of Love is a love-themed wall of 430 square feet, created in 2000 by artists Fédéric Baron and Claire Kito. It is composed of 612 tiles of enameled lava, on which the phrase 'I love you' is featured 311 times in 250 languages. Fun indeed!



To sit at a café in Paris is way more expensive than in Spain so to ease into the change in our budget, we grabbed very economic coffees and sweet treats (5€ for all) and found a doorstep on which to dine. It was ideal!
If you have followed this blog for any amount of time, you know that I love cemeteries. Christopher Wren, "My walk through the cemetery was an acquaintance with local history." For us, our history lesson was to unfold at Cimetière de Montmartre. What is truly amazing about it is that fact that 50 years after it was begun, a bridge was built over it, preserving the graves and giving us a view of its 'residents' from above. Steve and I both proclaimed, "This is the coolest, most unique cemetery we have ever been to!" That's saying something because we've been to a number of unforgettable ones.
In the mid-18th century, overcrowding in the cemeteries of Paris had created numerous problems, from impossibly high funeral costs to unsanitary living conditions in the surrounding neighborhoods. In the 1780s, the Cimetière des Innocents was officially closed and citizens were banned from burying corpses within the city limits of Paris. During the early 19th century, new cemeteries were constructed outside the precincts of the capital: Montmartre in the north, Père Lachaise Cemetery in the east, Passy Cemetery in the west and Montparnasse Cemetery in the south.
The Montmartre Cemetery was opened on 1 January 1825. It was initially known as le Cimetière des Grandes Carrières (Cemetery of the Large Quarries). The name referenced the cemetery's unique location, in the hollow of an abandoned gypsum quarry. The quarry had previously been used during the French Revolution as a mass grave. It was built below street level and its sole entrance was constructed on Avenue Rachel under Rue Caulaincourt.

A popular tourist destination, this Cemetery is the final resting place of many famous artists who lived and worked in the Montmartre area. We came to see two in particular but before meeting them, take a look at these works of art, monuments for those who are no longer with us. Truly something to see.



I thought this quote from Guy de Maupassant's in Graveyard Sirens was a poignant one, "Well, there I was in Montmartre Cemetery, and was all at once filled with sadness, a sadness that is not all pain, a kind of sadness that makes you think when you are in good health, 'This place is not amusing, but my time has not come yet.'" Do I love cemeteries because 'my time has not come yet'? Hmmm.






This is one of my favorite photos of the day because after this photo was taken a deluge of rain caused us to duck into the Famille Pierret's shrine. That was certainly a first.
One of the more elaborate tombs was that of Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Baudin Victor (1811-1851), a French physician and deputy to the assembly in 1849. He is famous for having been killed on a barricade raised to stop the insurrection against Napoleon III’s coup d’état. He was buried secretly at Montmartre Cemetery, where his grave became a place of rendezvous for Republicans. His remains were deposited in the Panthéon, Paris, on 4 August 1889 for the centennial of the French Revolution. Interesting.

One of my favorite painters is Edgar Degas (born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, hence the spelling confusion).
Degas (1834 –1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings who also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. He is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. Although Degas is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist, and did not paint outdoors as many Impressionists did. I am certain we will have the opportunity to appreciate the work of this great talent before we leave Paris.
The next on our search was for Alexandre Dumas fils (1824-1895), a French author and playwright, best known for the romantic novel La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias), published in 1848, which was adapted into Giuseppe Verdi's 1853 opera La traviata (The Fallen Woman).
Truthfully, we were thinking we were searching for Alexandre Dumas père. Dumas fils was the son of Alexandre Dumas père, who wrote The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. The hunt was worth finding this incredible tombstone tribute.
“I have always enjoyed cemeteries.
Altars for the living
as well as resting places for the dead,
they are entryways, I think, to any town or city,
the best places to become acquainted
with the tastes of the inhabitants,
both present and gone.”
― Edwidge Danticat
There are several of these statues located throughout various cemeteries in town. It reads, "General Administration Public Assistance. Trunk for the Poor of Paris." How old they are and how much donations the generate are questions I have. But what a wonderful idea in a place where one realizes how truly fortunate one is.
After window shopping, lunch out, and a pop into various churches and parks, I ended my day with a hike up to see La Basilique du Sacré-Cœur.
The Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica in Paris dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The basilica was designed by Paul Abadie, whose Neo-Byzantine-Romanesque plan was selected from among seventy-seven proposals. Construction began in 1875 and continued for forty years under five different architects. Completed in 1914, the basilica was formally consecrated in 1919 after World War I.
It boasts that adoration has continued since 1885. "Continuous Eucharistic Adoration (day and night) is the vocation of the Basilica. Every evening after its closing, the prayer relay continues in the Basilica, provided by the people registered for the night of adoration and accommodated in the sanctuary hostel next door. This translates to 1,221,884 hours or 50,911 nights of continued worship." Wow.


Even on this rainy day, the view from the butte was beautiful. The basilica is place exceptionally well.

Besides viewing it through the taxi window coming into town, this is the only time we've seen the Eiffel Tower so far. It is a goal during our brief stay, to get up close and personal with this favorite Parisian landmark. La vie est belle!

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