Better yet, I was mere blocks from the Arc de Triomphe and as such within walking distance of plenty to see and places to eat.
Still, Paris is huge and I simply didn’ t have time to visit Notre Dame, the Louvre, Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore and so much else I’ d hoped to see.
I went atop the Eiffel Tower though and loved it. Impressive it is and bigger than I was expecting. I knew it was going to be tall but expected, you know, like the tower at Six Flags only a bit taller. But up and up the elevators go, affording glorious views of Paris’ expanse. The downside is the place is crowded and the elevators can only hold so many. So, once you’ re ready to leave, you have to hang around 30-40 minutes waiting for a spot on the lifts. I chuckled at a picture sign warning dumb kids not to stick their fingers in the closing elevator doors.
I crossed the street after that to check out more statues and some imposing, I guess government, buildings and then checked out a nearby Christmas market but quickly decided it was too packed to bother with.
Next up: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise.
Yeah, a cemetery hardly seems festive tourist wise, but Jim Morrison’ s buried there and I wanted to stop by, say hi and thank him for“ Roadhouse Blues” and all the Doors’ other great songs. Other notables buried there include Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Colette, Sarah Berhardt, Seurat, Simone Signoret and Marcel Marceau among others.
Established in 1804, Cimetière du Père-Lachaise covers 110 acres and serves as the final resting place to about 1 million people. The endless statuary and tombstones are nothing less than awe-inspiring with priceless art ranging between thoughtful, peaceful, unsettling, downright disturbing and often comical. On and on the cemetery stretches. A person could spend days here.
With its old, uneven cobblestone pathways the cemetery somehow manages to run uphill in every direction both ways, or at least it certainly seems to. They should rent golf carts out. They’ d probably make a killing. I apologize for the pun.
Jammed together graves aside, it remains a working cemetery with recent burials sharing space with those from centuries ago.
It’ s a confusing cemetery, too, even given the posted maps of famous grave locations. I helped several find graves they were seeking and several did the same for me.
I spent several peaceful hours walking around much, the last of which I spent seeking Edith Piaf’ s grave.
Nicknamed the“ Little Sparrow,” Piaf was a famous French singer of the‘ 30s. Kind of the Taylor Swift of her day— in Europe at least, though popular in America, too— only, you know, with actual talent.
Somber monuments dedicated to French citizens killed during the World Wars and / or in concentration camps also dot the cemetery.
Exiting, I noticed large signs listing names on one section of the high wall surrounding the cemetery. Names of French children killed in World War I listed on signs that stretch about five blocks down the street.
On that sad note, I crossed the road to La Factorie Restaurant to dine on delicious spaghetti bolognese served by an attractive French waitress girl. Cemetery walking makes you hungry after all. Plus, I saw a couple eating the same as I walked by the restaurant’ s window and told the waitress,“ I want whatever they’ re having.”
While I enjoyed my pasta, two old French guys chilled on the restaurant’ s porch smoking cigars and drinking wine. Not for the first time I seriously considered asking someone to Fedex my dog and just never going home.
Soon enough though it came time to leave having seen much and way too little of France.
Fortunately, I wasn’ t heading home. Instead I was UK bound.