Montmartre Cemetary

The days between when I arrived and now have mostly been spent exploring my neighborhood, going to the market to get food for cooking and eating.  Also, I'm sorry to report that my stamina is not what I had hoped.  I added extra walking before I left home, but I'm afraid, not enough.  I haven't purchased my metro pass yet (it's on the agenda for today), so I've been walking everywhere.

For those of you interested in where I am located, I am in the 17th arr., sort of the bottom corner, right on the border of the 17th and 18th arrs.  It is a street called Rue Truffaut...I assume after the famous French film director.  I watched his famous film "The Last Metro" just days before I left home.

One day I walked to the Gustave Moreau Museum.  On the map it looked like it was not that far.....I was wrong....  After walking for about an hour, I found it was closed in preparation for a special exhibit.  No mention of that on their website, of course.  Walking home it was mostly uphill.  By the time I got home I was very tired and very sore.  But, oh, the interesting things I saw along with way.  So sorry I have not been taking more pictures, but I will get better at remembering, I promise.

Sunday I went to the Montmartre Cemetary and......just because I thought it would be the right thing to do on a Sunday....I went to the Erotic Museum.  Ooh La La!  It actually was very interesting.  I especially liked the old pictures of the brothels.  The brothels from the Belle Epoce era were so lavish and elegant.  There also there were some very beautifully done Japanese drawings and tiny Japanese ivory carvings...very tiny with so much detail.  Of course there were "French Postcards" from every decade from the invention of photography onward.  Some of the more modern stuff was basically porno.  One can only look at so many........well, you know....so many and so....well.....huge....  Although I didn't realize that every culture of every era seemed to think that a man pushing a wheelbarrow in front of him, with his huge cargo thereon, with a silly grin on his face...was funny.....but, well, it really is.  

The Montmartre Cemetary was fantastic.  It was a gray day and the leaves of the trees have not yet come out....so it had a moody...somber atmosphere about it.  I took some general pictures and also searched out some graves of people I was particularly interested in.  They have a nice little map which shows you the way to some of the more famous graves, but in my research I had found others I wanted to see.  There was no way to find them without them being on the map.  

Any pictures below without a title above them, are just general pictures of the Cemetary and things I found interesting.

                                           The following two are the tomb of Degas.

                                                               

                                                           This one is Gustave Moreau

                                                       These two are Nejinski

                                           This one has a dedication to those who died in the camps. The occupant is not a name I am familiar with.  Notice the small stones places on the dedication.  A Jewish tradition.

                                                     

                                                              Natalie Boulanger

                                                               These next three are Truffaut with metro tickets that people have left in honor the his film "The Last Metro."

I hope you enjoyed these pictures.  I will try to get better at taking pictures.

Tomorrow......actually today now...it's 6:30am and I've been e-mailing and blogging for three hours.  I'm still trying to figure out how to do the blog thing...... so Today I will attempt to buy my metro pass.  I'm still being shy about using my French, but I will get more brave....my friend did a wonderful job of tutoring me....it is I who am lacking in the courage to just go for it.  I know the words, I just need to say them.

Bonne Journee.