Life Through My Eyes: Nov 11, 2014

Today ended up being a very busy day. We started out just walking around for a bit and then we took the metro to the Pere -Lachaise Cemetery. We finally got some experience riding the metro and figuring out their route maps. By the time our vacation was finished, we felt comfortable taking the metro. We always kept our eyes and ears open and we never hesitated to get off earlier than we were supposed to whenever we had a "gut feeling" that something wasn't quite right with some of our fellow passengers. We could always get on the next metro which usually came by in a matter of minutes. A couple of things we noticed about riding the metro system was that almost all of the riders had music plugged into their ears or they were engrossed in playing a game on their phones and the other thing was that there was always a good chance that someone was going to pop into your car and start singing, playing an instrument or be carrying a baby around talking in French with a loud voice. Granted we could not understand what they were saying but it became obvious that after doing their speach, they would end up walking around the car with a cup or the hand held out.

Don't be fooled by the lack of people in the photos. The metro system can be quite full and hectic with people jamming into full and crowded cars at times.

We are now on our way to the famous Pere-Lachais Cemetery. Here is some information on the cemetery;

Opened in 1804 on the site of a former Jesuit retreat, Pere-Lachaise is today one of the world's largest and most famous cemeteries.

In fact, more than a million and a half people come to Pere-Lachaise each year, to walk its nearly 109 acres consisting of tens of thousands of monuments, many of which are dedicated to some of the world's greatest names in the arts, sciences, literature and of course history. Here's just a sample:

Francois Poulenc, Heloise and Abelard, Camille Pissaro, Cherubini, Chopin, Breguet (yes the watch guy), Lalique (the glass guy), Michel Petrucciani, Auguste Comte, Champollion, Samuel Hahnemann, Gustave Dore, Jim Morrison, Moliere, La Fontaine, Murat, Antoine Parmentier, Sarah Bernhardt, Balzac, Delacroix, Merleau-Ponty, Georges Melies, Edith Piaf, Bizet, Marcel Proust, Apollinaire, Isadora Duncan, Stephane Grappelli, Richard Wright, Auguste Blanqui, Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, Modigliani, Edith Piaf, Colette, Oscar Wilde.

You will also discover some of the most powerful and poignant memorials to the tens of thousands of French Jews deported to Nazi death camps, virtually all of whom perished.

A word of caution...if you should ever be in Paris and want to visit this cemetery there are 2 things I really strongly advise....#1 being a really good map of the cemetery. There are some online and there are some that get sold in certain businesses that are just outside of the cemetarys main entrances but be forewarned that the number of masps in these establishments are limited and #2 on my list is for you to have really good walking shoes. This place is absolutely huge and you will be walking on cobblestones and uneven terrain at times...very rough on the feet.

With that being said...Here are some of the photos that were taken on our way to the cemetery and during our visit at the cemetery

This house had a different look to it

A huge street art piece

This Citroen was parked out in front of the cemetery. There are several companies tat use these cars to drive tourists around and show them the sights of Paris both during the day and at night

One of the entrances to the cemetery

I experimented again with my editing program to come with a few different effects

For some reason there were a lot of ravens

While we were at the cemetery there was a professional looking photo shoot going on and of course i had to 'shoot" the photo shooters.

Later that evening we went to Lovers Bridge and found our lock again in the multitude of locks. After that we went to Notre Dame to see it at night with the lights on. Visiting the sights at night was very different from the day time and taking photos was fun.

There were a bunch of different street performers out that night. Below is a group of roller bladers and they were tring to jump over this bar. They kept setting it higher. We were only there for one jump and I wasn't prepared. I couldn't get my camera in the fast action "sport" mode..oh well...maybe next time