Paris: A Week in the City of Love: Day 2 - Père Lachaise Cemetery, Place des Vosges, and Other Wanderings
April in Paris with Haussmannien Architecture.
UPDATED: 2/4/2023
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French pastries are so delish! Drinking coffee out of a brand new monogrammed mug was great too!
We began the day with a bevy of croissants - croissant au beurre et pain au chocolat (butter and chocolate for those with even less French than I - an impressive feat!) - and café made at home in a French press, of course! The flaky goodness came piping hot from Bertrand’s Paris Notre Dame , a short walk down the street from where we stayed.
It was time to enjoy our first full day in the city. Probably not as organized as we should be - but that’s okay! - we wandered past Notre Dame, our first close look at the famous cathedral. We could nearly see Notre Dame from our doorstep but the walk to the island was about 5 minutes from where we were staying. This was the first of many walk-bys before we finally visited it the day before we left, a mere week and a half before the fire caused significant damage and took it offline to visitors for a while. We truly lucked out, and because we were staying so close to the site, we ended up with a lot of photos of the cathedral that we’ll treasure.
Walking past Notre Dame, we crossed the bridge over the other half of the Seine to Île Saint-Louis. It is worth taking a moment to explain the general geography of Paris. The city is sliced down the middle by the Seine with the two sides being referred to as the “Left Bank” and “Right Bank”. We stayed on the Left Bank, which most might consider south, and is historically home to many of the city’s artistic residents and visitors as well as the university. Sitting in the middle of the Seine are two compact islands - Île Saint-Louis and Île de la Cité (which is where Notre Dame is). Later on in the trip, we will discuss a bit more of the history of the city and the importance of these islands.
Springtime in Paris - the weather was gorgeous and the scenery was even better!
Crossing the bridge from Île de la Cité to Île Saint-Louis, we came across some street musicians playing the accordion and other instruments. Like so much of the city, Île Saint-Louis is a fun area to wander and see old streets and buildings, small restaurants (one of which we would eat at several times later in the week), and some shopping. If you like wandering without a goal in mind, Paris is a great city for absentminded discoveries.
Weaving our way through the city with the goal of getting to the Atelier des Lumières to buy tickets, we saw a variety of different types of Parisian neighborhoods and passed through the traffic circle that houses Colonne de Juillet (July Column), the only marker left to indicate the (in)famous site of the Bastille, where the French Revolution kicked into gear. Like any city worth its salt, Paris did not disappoint with creative street art to provide unexpected imagery along our journey and to which we will dedicate a separate blog later on. When we arrived at Atelier des Lumières after about 3 miles of walking and discovered that we would have to purchase tickets online instead since they were sold out, we turned our sights to the one other spot nearby on our list to visit on the trip: Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Street art is everywhere in Paris.
Fresh flowers seemed to be sold everywhere in Paris.
Balcony Gardens are common across Paris.
While I know I am not alone in this interest and I know it isn’t for everyone, I really enjoy visiting old, interesting cemeteries. If you are in this category or suspect you may be, Père Lachaise is absolutely worth a visit.
A map is absolutely essential if you want to find any of the particularly famous graves in the cemetery; even then, some sections are a little tricky. They were out of maps near the front gate when we went, but I was able to find an online version here that we found very useful.
The cemetery has rough and uneven cobblestone avenues, so I recommend wearing sturdy shoes. It also weaves its way up and down a hillside with various stairways placed throughout side avenues if you want to take a route off the main roads to less accessible places. The cemetery is 110 acres and is one of - if not the most - visited cemeteries in the world. The cemetery was founded in 1804 and named after François de la Chaise, a Jesuit priest (hence “Père”) who had been the private confessor to King Louis XIV in the late 1600s.
A park-like cemetery, there are trees and other plant-life throughout, and it’s evident that some of the tree roots are creating upheaval for the inflexible tombs. One of our favorite parts was simply exploring the various tomb designs - some very plain or modern looking, others ornate with iron gates and stained glass windows. For some reason, that type of tomb always reminds me of the one in Romeo and Juliet where Juliet awakens to find Romeo dead next to her in her family’s tomb before killing herself.
Cobblestones make for pretty scenery but can be rough to walk on. Wear proper shoes.
Monument to Anatole de la Forge
There are so many interesting mausoleums at Pere Lachaise.
This grave was framed with a lock, a key, but no door.
In addition to the map I linked above, there are boundless websites with lists of whose graves to visit. Honestly, it all depends on what is important to you. As an avid reader, some of my top picks were, naturally, authors: Oscar Wilde (I loved The Picture of Dorian Gray, Gertrude Stein, and Marcel Proust (working my way through In Search of Lost Time and am almost halfway through volume III). We also saw Balzacs’ grave, though I have to admit I have yet to read any of his novels. Some well-known painters that I have studied are also there: Seuret, Pissaro. Then there are the musicians from Chopin to Piaf (we couldn’t find her grave based on the map), Bizet (composer of the opera Carmen, which we’ve seen at our local opera), and one of the most-visited graves: Jim Morrison.
Morrison’s tomb is actually off the beaten path, but we found it by following the sound of voices and discovered a small crowd and a visitor playing “Light my Fire” on his phone near the “gumtree” where visitors stick their gum when they visit.
The grave of Jim Morrison, lead vocalist of The Doors. Arguably one of the most visited sites in Pere Lachaise.
I have mixed feelings about the desecration caused by visitors to Morrison’s grave, who have been rowdy for decades, even going so far as to draw arrows on others’ graves to point the way. Besides Morrison’s, the other grave that seemed to have the most impact from the public was Oscar Wilde’s, whose family has put a barrier around his tombstone to separate the public from the Sphinx-like sculpture, which has been missing an *ahem* important body part since it was broken off in the 1960s in an act of vandalism. The glass around it is covered with lipstick from kisses, and various mementos thrown over the barricade are strewn around its base. On one hand, I do think most of this behavior is by people trying to honor someone who made an impact on their lives but on the other, it is incredibly disrespectful to their families and to their cemetery neighbors.
Oscar Wilde’s tomb needed a protective barrier to prevent both well intended and malicious vandalism.
A pattern of black, white, and gold inside the columbarium.
In the middle of the cemetery is a columbarium that houses even more remains. The columbarium is a stark white, marble echo-y room with flowers and pictures placed at some of the spots.
The cemetery is still in use today, though it is very crowded, and there are specific requirements that must be met to be buried there. For those looking for a more affordable option who still meet the stringent requirements, their cremains can be added to a lawn in the cemetery. Atlas Obscura wrote an article on this interesting story that you can read here.
After hours walking and exploring the city and cemetery, we were way overdue for lunch!
Our in-laws, who had been to Paris several times before remembered an interesting spot over sort of near us, so we walked about 1.3 miles further to Place des Vosges, which is the oldest planned square in Paris, dating to the early 1600s and home to Victor Hugo’s house (which is on the future Paris trip list, as I absolutely loved Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The architecture of the Place des Vosges is interesting and unique and worth seeing if you’re in the area. We at lunch at Cafe Hugo, where we drank burgundy and started with bulfala with tomatoes and basil. Dustin had fish and chips, and Lindsey had a salad with basically a combination of some of the best foods ever: tomatoes, shrimp, salmon, and avocados. We had never heard of buffala, which is a form of mozzarella made from Italian water buffalo milk, whereas traditional mozzarella is made from cow’s milk. It was easily the most delicious mozzarella we had ever eaten.
To head back to our home for the week, there was - you guessed it! - more walking, made longer by each of us assuming someone else was paying attention to where we were going so we took a scenic route.
For dinner, we got some essentials - wine, baguettes, fruit, and cheese - and found a spot along the Seine to dine, watching the various boat tours cross in front of us, their lights dotting the water as it got darker out. We wondered how many people on the boats - probably 95% tourists - thought we were locals enjoying a night by the river. But then, it was tough to find a place to sit and eat because so many sections of the walk near the river smelled like urine. So, I suspect not too many locals would be eating there after all.
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Check out our other posts about France:
Paris: A Week in the City of Love: Day 3