Cemetery Solitude...

Today walking through infinite rows of tombs stones and crypts gave be incredible perspective. As I observed each stone's unique ornamentation which symbolized the lives of the thousands of people now 6ft under, I felt like I was learning a little about each person. The silence of the Montparnasse cemetery was palpable, but I loved it, it was cleansing in a way... After this weekend of intense sightseeing a hyper-stimulation if was nice to just spend the day by myself in thought.

This cemetery is home to many famous authors, poets and singers as well as generations of families all buried under the same headstone. As I stumbled over the many different levels of tombs I started singing to myself; at first very quietly , just under my breath, but then as I continued through what seemed to be the endless/lifeless cemetery I started belting it out! Jazz classics were what first came to mind (Marisa like on our train ride back to Rome:) and I felt Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ole Blue Eyes channeling through my lungs and out my lips. A very windy day, all the trees rustled and leaves danced in cyclones beneath my boots. I liked reading the tombstones and seeing the old and new flowers resting inside the crypts. A section of the cemetery was highly concentrated with Jewish last names and emblems... and of course fake plastic flowers, oy! Typical of Russian Jews at least, it made me think of my grandmother who I think of a great deal as I walk the streets of Paris. She spent her years after the Holocaust living in Paris and always wanted to return to the Paris joie de vivre. I envision what her Paris must have looked like and how much I would loved have walked these streets with her chic self now...

This weekend all the ADPi girls visited my city, coming from Madrid and Rome. Its crazy how much you can do in two days but yet how much more of the city they unfortunately missed out on due to time constraints. We did the major sights, including a trip to the top of the Tour Eiffel which I had not done yet. And I will not do it again! ughhh Even in the off season the lines were awful... I felt like cattle which greatly took away from the experience, but we made the best of it... Having them here was nice, but unfortunately brought on a wave of not what I would categorize as home sickness-- but "people sickness"... haha

Mais... IM IN PARIS! All I need to do is grab a crepe and walk into a museum and the funk is gone... pretty great anti-depressant I would say, non?