Exploring the Fringes

Now that we've seen all the "big" stuff, Burke and I are having a lot of fun exploring the attractions that are not as well known.  We began with the Parc de la Villette; a former location for slaughterhouses now transformed into acres of walkways with open grass, a mini carnival for children, warehouses turned into concert venues, a gigantic science museum for kids with an aquarium and even an IMAX theater located inside this giant reflective ball.

We didn't realize how much stuff there was to see at the park and ended up spending an entire afternoon.  One of my favorite thing about the area were these red structures called "follies" every couple hundred yards.  Burke thought they were dumb since they served no practical purpose, but I loved how funky and bright they were!

On the other end of the city, we spent a day at La Defense.  In the 1980's they constructed this giant square building that is now called "The Grand Arch."  To give you some perspective, they say you could fit the entire Notre Dame inside of  the inner square!  If you were to walk straight from the Grand Arch, in 10 miles you would run into the Arc de Triomphe and 6 miles straight from there you would hit the Arc du Carrousel directly in front of the pyramids at the Louvre Museum.  These three are called the triumphant arches and apparently there are plans to extend the axis even further behind La Defense and out into the countryside.

In the square at La Defense, there were some neat pieces of artwork including the thumb of a giant!

As well as some cool modern art overlooking a hedge maze.  This is also the place where we shopped at the cursed mall.  Never again!

Another day after classes, we traveled to Pere Lachaise; the largest cemetery and green space in all of Paris.  Apparently there were massive community graves for centuries in the center of Paris that would hold up to 1,500 bodies before they would cover them up!  Ew.  In the late 1700's, the stench became so terrible that they built 3 cemeteries on opposite ends of the city from one another and began to relocate bodies to those sites, as well as taking the remains of thousands of bodies into the catacombs under the city streets at Denfert Rochereau, just one metro stop up from us.  In 1815, people still weren't utilizing the cemeteries on the outskirts so the government brilliantly moved the remains of some famous Parisians to Pere Lachaise and within a few years, it became the "hot spot" to be buried.  

   

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Among the celebrities buried here are composer Fredrick Chopin and the lead singer of "The Doors" Jim Morrison.  He is, in fact, the main attraction of the cemetery and apparently fans have turned it into something of a shrine for him.  His tomb was pretty hard to find, because this place is seriously massive (109 acres to be exact!), but they have a map at the entrance with all the famous tombs starred for you to track down.

My personal favorite was the tomb of the brilliant English author, Oscar Wilde.  Back in high school, Josie and I did a scene from his play "The Importance of Being Earnest" and ever since I have been a big fan of his works!  Why this British literary genius is buried in a French cemetery or why his tomb has an Egyptian figure on it, I'm not sure, but it was still exciting for me nonetheless!  I also loved the fact that his entire tombstone was covered with lipstick marks from hundreds of kisses and wish I knew how that tradition got started.  I refrained from smooching a 200 year old tomb, but I love you Oscar Wilde nonetheless!