Searching for Edith Piaf

Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Meet Richard and Jay at about 11:30 for junket to Cimitiere du Pere Lachaise. This is a wonderful place to walk, with its shaded paths and irregular terrain (by that I mean it's hilly! there are lots of stairs.) We pass by the grave of Colette in our wanderings. Jay suggests that we each look for a monument that we would like to have over our graves. I find two: One is a small rotunda (reminescent of Jefferson's Monticello or the Rotunda at UVa) and the other is a monument with an open book on top!

Richard wants to show me the graves of Yves Montand and Simone Signoret (they're buried together) but we don't have a map. So we ask a young woman walking by if we can take a look at hers. In the course of conversation, we learn that her name Nadine, she's French but living in Spain, is a belly-dancing teacher, is half Jewish and half Catholic and is in Paris for the wedding of a cousin's daughter (a four-day affair). She is a character straight out of an Almodovar film, funny, out-spoken, dynamic. She wants to find the grave of Edith Piaf. In the course of looking for it, we pass an entire section devoted to those who died in WW II with memorials to holocaust victims. It is very sobering, even more so because we can hear the voices of children from a nearby schoolyard. Although it acts as somewhat of an antidote, it is also a poignant reminder of how many children died in the death camps.

At Piaf's grave, we encounter two more young Spaniards, Eduardo and Nuria. Nuria speaks English but Eduardo doesn't so we have a wonderful, spirited, multi-lingual conversation surrounding Edith Piaf. (remember: novio story) I'm sure she would have enjoyed it. Interestingly, she's buried in a family plot, not alone, and it's very plain. You would miss it if you weren't looking for it.

La Mere Lachaise. Reluctantly, we leave the cemetery; Richard and Jay are heading off to the Picasso Museum, and I need something warm to eat. Nadine and I walk to Pere Lachaise metro where she peels off to go shopping. I go to La Mere Lachaise (funny, n'est-ce pas?) for lunch from 2 to 3. I'm definitely getting into the French dining style. I have something called a Croque Compangard, which is basically a Croque Monsieur except in addition to the cheese and ham, it also has tomato, basil, a ton of garlic and it's on Pain Poilane. Excellent. A little boy at a table across from me starts "flirting" and this continues right through my entire lunch. I end up chatting with his mother and father. His name is Jean and he is 15 months old. He is so beautiful that at first I think he's a girl despite the fact that he's dressed in blue! When I leave, I stop at their table to take a picture of him. He raises his arms for me to pick him up, so I hold him for a while. But then when I try to put him down, he starts clinging to me like a little monkey! I think he just likes my necklace. I ask his mother if she's looking for a nanny!

Charonne. Then on to explore the 20th. I take the metro from Pere Lachaise to Porte de Bagnolet. There are some little streets at the top of a hill in a peaceful little haven: r. Irenee-Blanc and r. Jules-Siegfried. Up and down lots of stairs. Wander down to the Place Edith Piaf where there is a small bronze statute of her that isn't beautiful but captures her spirit perfectly.

I go into the public garden, Jardins Debrousse, hoping to use the toilettes, but malheureusement they are hors service. This property used to be the Domaine de Bagnolet with a lovely chateau but it was all torn down at the end of the 18th c. The only remaining vestige is a small folie, the Pavillon de l'Ermitage. By a stroke of luck, it's open to visit (the visiting hours are Fridays and Saturdays from 2 to 5 p.m.) So I pay my 3 euros and go in. It's the dearest little place, with 6 smallish but elegant rooms on the ground floor looking out over the park. There's a second floor which is not open for visits. The young woman handling the admissions let's me use the bathroom. hooray. I can't imagine that this place gets many visitors (I'm the only one there), but as I'm leaving, an older French couple comes in.

Back on the r. de Bagnolet is the church of St-Germain de Charonne with a bell tower dating from the 13 century. According to the Guide Touristique for the church, it has been renovated several times throughout the centuries, the last time in the 20th c. upon the wishes of Andre Malraux, then the Ministre de la Culture. There is a little cemetery behind the church, one of two remaining parish cemeteries in the city (the others are city property), and Malraux's "companion" Josette Clotis (killed in 1945 in a train accident) and his two sons by her (killed at ages 18 and 20 in an auto accident) are buried here. There's also a very funny monument to one Francois Begue, apparently a joker, that says he was a "painter, patriot, poet and philosopher" as well as "secretaire de Robespierre" proving that you can be anything you want after death! :)

This part of the 20th is like an old village with its little squares and winding streets. I'm in the r. Saint-Blaise at the moment when school is letting out and the streets are filled with mothers and children. I'm in the Square Antoine-Blondin reading a sign describing a small wet-land area when my phone rings, and it's Paul calling from Connecticut. So I'm in a great spot to sit down and have a chat. On the r. Vitruve, I pass a plaque on a house where the singer "Barbara" lived. I've never heard of her, but this is the second time I've seen reference to her (the other was the Allee Barbara in the Square des Batignolles). Also in this neighborhood is the small Jardin Naturel, a park where the biodiversity of the Ile-de-France (the Paris region) has been recreated. No pesticides are used here and dead leaves aren't gathered up. Lots of mothers and children here. The back of the garden is against one of the walls of Pere Lachaise. I continue around to the Villa Riberolle where the 19th c. buildings have been converted into artists' workshops and studios.

The end of the day. It's about 6 p.m., so I get on the Metro at Alexandre Dumas, change at Nation to line 1 for Hotel de Ville. Take a shower, change, meet Jay and Richard on r. des archives to go to cocktail party at Vanina's apt in the 11th. Great fun and an interesting group of people. Then we drive back to the 3rd. The guys are meeting other friends for dinner at L'Ami Louis so I walk back to apt down r. Reamur then r. St Martin. It turns out to be a long walk because first I go the wrong way on r. Saint Martin so I have to back track. Oh well, at least I got to see the Musee des Arts et Metiers, the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers and the arch at Porte St Martin. Home at about 10 p.m. See Sophie and Christos sitting in cafe across the way.

Pedometer: 11, 609 but that doesn't count evening outing which was probably another 2-3,000. Weather cool and overcast but a good day for walking.