Note: This blog is actually 2 blogs: the posts on top are from our 2022 trip and the posts at the bottom are from a trip we took in 2018. Check the "Recent Post" column or the bottom of each post to determine the post dates.
May 1st is Labor Day in France. Unions are big here and lots of groups were out marching and demonstrating and selling Lilies of the Valley. And the same was true in Pere Lachaise Cemetery. We went to Pere Lachaise because we knew it was a holiday and we thought it probably wouldn’t be closed like so many places are on holidays. But some areas were very crowded and some of the little cemetery intersections were blocked with police cars. But we still managed to find Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Chopin, and a cat. A live cat.
Some areas were very crowded with Unionists supporting Labor Day.
More peaceful union supporters. These people were singing.
Well guarded . . . and didn’t want their picture taken.
Jim Morrison’s grave. There’s a fence around it so people can’t get near it. Except for the people who left all that stuff.
But just outside the fence near’s Jim’s grave is this tree with bamboo wrapped around it.
And on the bamboo is gum. Lots and lots of chewing gum.
Also near Jim is this little tomb structure with trees growing out of a split in one of the roofing logs.
A close-up of the little trees. Funny.
“A La Memoire des Enfants Juifs Assassine par les Nazis.” There’s something very haunting about this memorial to the thousands of Jewish children who were deported from France during the holocaust and never returned home.
This local man comes here daily to feed the cats.
La Pere Lechaise chat.
He pointed us in the direction of Jim Morrison’s grave and later we ran across him again. Since we still hadn’t found it, he took us there! He spoke no English so it was an interesting conversation.
A memorial to the Armenians who fought in WWI and WWII.
I Love Paris in the Springtime 