Today we started our morning at Cafe Central for a small breakfast of eggs, bacon, and coffee. From here we were going to do a little shopping at Louboutin, since Christal did not get a chance to go on Monday.
Shoes!!
This time not only were Christal and Kelly both successful, Duane and Davin also each got a pair from the Men's store.
Shoe shopping can wear a person out so it was time to re-energize with some drinks and food.
Jamie made quick friends with our waiter when he ordered three bottles of wine and one glass. Our waiter found this very funny and proceeded to bring Jamie out one small shot glass for the three bottles.
Along with the Duetz bubbles, we also ordered a Sancerre (can you tell this is one of our favorite whites?) and a Alsace Riesling.
After sitting for a bit, we decided that we might as well order some lunch, since dinner was going to be late tonight at the Cuban Cafe.
Kelly's go to lately for meals has been duck. Today was no exception as she ordered the duck breast with potatoes and green beans.
The mussels were so good here earlier this week, Tari and Jamie had to order them again and Davin gave them a whirl as well.
Duane had the filet and fries, but mostly got it for the Bearnaise sauce it came with.
Christal went with one of her favorites as well, a salad with smoked salmon.I See Dead People
After lunch, Davin and Christal made their way back to the hotel as they were going to do some shopping on Champs de Elysees while the rest of the group toured the famous cemetery Pere Lachaise. Since they had done this on a previous trip, they did not really want to walk it again.
Pere Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris proper and the final resting place of many famous people, both French and not French.
Based on the information out of the Rick Steves' guide book the plan was to start at the top of the cemetery and make our way down to the main entrance. This way you are mostly walking down hill instead of up hill.
One of the first sites you see when starting at the Gambetta street entrance is the crematorium and mausolums. The building is quite large and the smoke stacks on the top make it pretty clear what goes on here.
One of the first famous grave sites you make your way to is the poet Oscar Wilde. In years past, the statue on his grave used to be covered in lipstick kisses. They have recently cleaned the statue and placed a plexiglass wall around it to help protect it from visitors. Today, the statue is pretty clean and lipstick free,
Many people come to visit the cemetery, because of the famous people that are there, but this is still a normal cemetery for Paris to bury their loved ones, so you will be surrounded by many beautiful Gothic headstones and statues to celebrate the lives of those who have passed.
The cemetery has been around for hundreds of years so even well known figures of days gone by are buried here, like the French play write and actor Moliere.
Some of those that are here may not be famous but did play important roles in the development of Paris. For example, the picture above is the grave site for the person responsible for building the Paris Metro system. Visitors pay their respects by leaving a used Metro ticket on his grave.
Arguably the most popular grave is that of Doors front man, Jim Morrison. His final resting place is somewhat hidden between several rows of headstones and he almost appears squeezed in. As with other headstones, like Oscar WIlde and Edit Piaf, we expected them to be bigger and more grandiose. That is not the case. They are pretty normal size. As with Oscar WIlde, Jim's grave is protected by a few fences, but that does not stop people from placing flowers, sheet music and other items by his grave,
Famous composer, Fredrick Chopin is also resting in this cemetery, it is amazing that even after this many years since his death people are stil leaving flowers and other mementos
This is the oldest headstone in the cemetery. It is a combined headstone and resting place for two star crossed lovers from almost a century ago. Heloise and Abelard fell in love while Abelard was the teacher of 19 year old Heloise. He was over 20 years older than her and a believer in no church related studies. After they fell in love and secretly married, her family found out, castrated him and sent her to live in a convent while Abelard was sent to a monastery. For the rest of their lives they kept in touch via love letters. When they both passed away each was separately buried at their current residence and eventually they were moved to this to cemetery and to this shared monument.
One final stop before ending the tour is to see the grave site of the composer of the William Tell Overture and the father of the current Paris city design.
With the cemetery tour ended, we made our way to the Cuban Cafe for dinner, drinks, and cigars before finally calling it a night.
Go to 6/4/17
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