Europe – Day 6

As this is our last day in Paris, we decided to just enjoy what we could and not to try and crowd too much into the time we have.

There was some discussion about some of our party going to the Catacombs but the lineups threatened to be brutal so we went on to Plan B.

DH and I knew that the Pere LaChaise Cemetery was near our AirBnB but we didn’t realize that we could walk there in the same time it took on transit. So we did.

It really is very peaceful, although of course there were many people there (that made it easier for us to find the graves we were looking for, we just watched for a gathering of folk and made for it).  The really touching thing about the cemetery is that there doesn’t seem to be a special section for each different religion, everyone is all higgledy-piggledy mixed up.  Death, the great social leveller.

Among the graves we saw were

The Lizard King himself, Jim Morrison, who is listed as a “writer”

Moliere, who spends eternity next to fabulist La Fontaine

Edith Piaf, with members of her family

 

Gertrude Stein, friend and mentor of the Jazz Age notables

And of course, poor Oscar Wilde, whose restored gravesite is behind plexiglas.

That was enough, it was time to join the world of the living, so we walked out to the Gambetta Square and decided to take Rick Steve’s advice and enjoy a ride on the #69 bus from the Square to the Champs de Mars by the Eiffel Tower, its regular route.

It was quite a pleasant route, and we saw a lot, but for some reason the bus stopped in the Rue de Rivoli and we all piled out.  When your tour closes a door, it opens a window — on food. We decided we would find a good place for lunch and we did!  Le Pick Clops is a kind of American style diner, where you can enjoy your burgers to the soundtrack of the 50s and 60s.  A nice lunch.

I looked up on a map (yes!  a paper map) and saw that if we strolled up the Rue Vielle du Temple we could reach our Metro line at Oberkampf station.  It was a great walk, with chic boutiques and cafes, all maintaining the traditions of Paris (except maybe closing on Sunday, they were all open).

Just before we headed down the stairs to the Metro station we decided to have a drink in a sidewalk cafe.  The waiter had no idea what we meant by a dry martini.  He gave us their drinks menu, and sure enough, not a martini to be found (not even a Manhattan, just a Cosmopolitan).  So we had a couple of their concoctions and soaked in the Parisian atmosphere while people-watching and checking out the architecture.  It’s apparently not enough that all the buildings are the same height (six storeys, usually) and all made out of creamy limestone.  No, check it out, all the windows line up all along the block — each storey is the same height in the buildings.

rue de Rivoli? Or Montmartre? Or Marais? C’est la meme chose! LA MEME CHOSE!!!!

It’s a bit odd.  Symmetrical, but odd and kind of stage set-like.

Another quiet dinner and evening in.