David Around the World: October 29, 2014 Paris, Pere Lachaise, Eiffel Tower, Subway, Arc de Triumphe

The apartment that I'm in really sucks. I didn't sleep much because my apt. is at the bottom of the stairway and I have a busy apartment above me including a dog, that must be alone during the day, because I hear it running around. Okay let's get up and have a full day. Shower works but the holder for the hand sprayer is broken, figures, so I have to lay it down ever so often. The location of this place is perfect right at the stairway to Sacre Coeur, in Montmartre District.
Good breakfast on the patio at a cafe that looks straight up at the Sacre Coeur church. Okay here is the website for more information on Sacre Couer, http://www.sacre-coeur-montmartre.com/english/
Today is a little cloudy and chilly, plus its close to Halloween, so why not go to a graveyard. Well, not just any graveyard, but one of the most famous ones in the world, Pere Lachaise. Some very famous people are buried there to include Sarah Bernhardt (not that one, French actress in the early 1900's), Rossini (operatic composer), Oscar Wilde (writer), Frederic Chopin (composer, one of my favorites) and Jim Morrison (frontman for the band, Doors).
I take the subway and it's a piece of cake getting there, though the waiter at the cafe suggested I not get off at the Pere Lachaise stop, but go on to the next one. The reason is that the entrance to the Pere Lachaise cemetery starts you uphill, all the way to the end. If you go to the next subway stop it let's you off at the back and exit of the cemetery. Boy, was he ever right. I watched some poor old souls really struggling getting up the hills around the place. No matter where you enter, this place is so beautiful. The trees and flowers just add to the magnificence of the place. When entering you are immediately overwhelmed with the number of majestic headstones and tombs. The birth dates of some of the stones go back as far as the 1700's, opened in 1804. I make my way around the park and notice a lot of obvious well-to-do people buried here as well. But there are also some interesting people that may be a little notorious or interesting.
Stiv Bators, was singer for the Dead Boys in the 1980's, actually had his ashes sprinkled on Jim Morrison's gravesite. Judah Benjamin, Yale Grad and was the Secretary of State for the Confederacy in the US. Ramon Betances, was a revolutionist in Puerto Rico, considered the Father of the Puerto Rican nation. Maria Callas, opera singer, who's ashes were stolen then found. Frederic Chopin (a Pole), body is here, but his heart was removed and it is entombed in a pillar at Holy Cross church in Warsaw. Joesph Guillotin, you got it, invented the guillotine. Ferdinand Lesseps, designed the Suez Canal. Oscar Wilde, Irish poet/witer, admirers kiss the Art Deco monument wearing red lipstick. The list goes on and on. This also is the final resting place for many world revolutionaries from other countries, including several cabinet members from the Shah of Iran era, US Confederate officers/cabinet members.
I get to Jim Morrison's grave (End of the Line), where there is already a line up but only about a dozen people. I notice one well bearded elderly gentleman is kneeling and crying. The Morrison site is very off the beaten path so it took me a few minutes to find it. Of course, I turn on my iPhone to a Doors song, The Spy. I get a few peculiar looks, but get a thumbs up from the guy who is kneeling. I swear the guy looks like Jerry Garcia. I spend the rest of the time finding other markers and admiring some of the very large tombs.
I leave Pere Lachaise and take the subway to the Eiffel Tower area. The subways are very easy to get around. They, like ones in NYC, have musicians and character actors in the tunnels leading to the train platforms. I videoed an excellent Russian Folk band, I'll put it on FaceBook soon. Pictures of the Eiffel Tower do not give it justice. This thing is HUGE. I get off my stop and notice it in the distance. I figure I'll walk up to it. I walked, and walked, and walked...must have taken me 15 minutes to get to the base. Am I going up, NO CHANCE, I hate heights. Interest info: Gustave Eiffel, the builder and designed also help design the Statue of Liberty; Hitler ordered one of his generals to destroy the Tower, the general talked him out of it; 7 Million people visit the Eiffel Tower a year.

Eiffel Tower 15 minutes away

Eiffel Tower 5 Minutes Away

Eiffel Tower 10 Minutes Away

Next I take a short subway ride to the Arc de Triumph. This is the start of the famous street and shopping haven of the Champs-Elliesees. The Arc was started by Napoleon, but was stopped and started several times. It was not completed until more than ten years after Napoleons death. The Arc is a memorial to fallen French soldiers from all wars in French history. And yes, DeGaulle marched his troops through the Arc after the war was ended, as did Hitler 4 years before. Full day, nice dinner on the Champs-Elliesees, just cheese, fruit and Bordeaux...of course. I'll figure out the rest of the night.