Edith, where are you?

After visiting a friend in the eleventh district, I had some time before work so I decided to take a stroll and see where my promenade would lead me. I stopped for lunch at the Cat Cafe, mainly because I loved the name (the ravioli's weren't bad, the wine was watered down, but the chocolate fondue was very tasty!) Across the street from Cat Cafe is the infamous Pere Lachaise Cemetery...home to Jim Morrison, Proust, Edith Piaf among other noteworthy figures. I never made it to this cemetery when I studied here, so it has been on my list of things to see while in Paris. Ever since I watched the movie that chronicled Edith Piaf's life, I've been wanting to pay homage to her.

As I was walking up the steps toward the monument in the center of the cemetery, I paused at a bench to take everything in (Also I had just climbed one too many steps and I needed to sit and inhale air). A man was sitting on a bench next to me and he was crying. It struck me that Pere Lachaise was a destination for me, but for him, it was sadly an inevitable visit that it seems he would have liked to put off a bit longer. Many cemeteries in Paris are listed in the tourist books, so it is easy to think that those interred there have long since passed on, but for many French visitors, this is the final resting place of their very near loved ones.

I forgot about the famous people for awhile and just wandered through the tombs for a bit, looking at the family names on the gravestones and their descriptions. Eventually I saw a group of people gathered around one site in particular and I wondered if it was a funeral, it turned out I found Jim Morrison's grave. It was rather uneventful, and looks precisely like the others. At this point, I remembered my inclination to visit Edith Piaf's grave, but I searched and never found it. The space on the map doesn't correspond to her grave site. There is a large stone post where she is supposed to be buried. Oh well, some things are best left to mystery I suppose. It was an interesting way to spend a crisp afternoon. In peace and contemplation.