Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Bonsoir tout le monde!!  This will be the last blog post I write in France...tellement triste!!  It was warm and sunny today in Paris, almost as if the city wanted to send me off on a high note!  I stopped by La Cuisine Paris one last time to say "au revoir" to everyone, and then I headed over to St. Germain de Pres to meet up with a friend and to have my last lunch at Cafe Flore, another celebrated Parisan Cafe.

 

Thanks for the pic Google!

 I had a croque madame, it was quite good :) I was hungry, so I did not take the time to snap a pic...

After lunch, I headed over to Pere Lachaise Cemetery, the last thing on my Paris Bucket List (for this trip anyway!)  It's on of the three major cemeteries in Paris, and is the resting place of some very famous people!

Front Gate of the Cemtery

 Everyone is all nice and cozy in their funerary monuments!

Some of them are quite ornate...

Angel statue

 Family Plot

 Gothic Architecture on a mini scale!

I liked the style of this grave

 Crematorium

 Ashes

Tomb of Oscar Wilde

People write messages to him on the glass...

 I guess this lady really liked books....

If you can't live in a castle, why not be buried in one??

 Another book lover grave

One of the paths was filled with memorials to those who died during the Nazi Occupation and in the Concentration Camps.  I thought the statues really captured the sadness of that period in France's history.  N'oubliez jamais!

 Memorial for victims of Concentration Camps

 Tomb of Edith Piaf

I think most people would not decide to spend their last day in Paris in a cemetery.  I did not find it depressing though, it reminded me how fleeting life is, and I need to live each day to its fullest.  In the movie Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating encourages his students to Carpe Diem, seize the day!  I feel that I have seized my semester here in Paris. 

I am very sad to leave, but I am looking forward to returning to the good old United States of America.  I met some amazing people on this program, and had some amazing experiences.  I am so glad I decided to study abroad, and to come to Paris.  I had a great last dinner with my host family, I will miss them.  They were so welcoming and kind, and they made my semester that much better.  My host mom even made crepes for dessert tonight because she knows how much I like them :).  

Thank you all for reading my blog and following my adventures!  I will write another post or two after I return to the US about "reverse culture shock".  I am sure I will try to speak French to people when I get home. 

And to conclude the post, a quote from Ernest Hemingway:

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast."

I think that applies to young women too!!

Bisous,

Allison