An old cemetery

In July I made a post about the small church behind Sacré Cœur, Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre, and mentioned the small graveyard connected to the church, the oldest in Paris and called Cimitière du Calvaire. I also mentioned that it’s open for visitors only once a year, November 1st, and I more or less promised to visit it then. I kept my promise. The gate was open.



This small cemetery is on the very top of Montmartre and was once a place where you could find pagan and Roman temples. The few remaining graves are mostly from the beginning of the 19th century and basically you find only local Montmartre people buried here, hardly anybody really widely known. One exception is perhaps L-A de Bougainville (1729-1811), who started the first settlement on the Falkland Islands, led a voyage around the world, fought in the American war of Independence, was a great mathematician… and has got islands, mountains and plants named after him*.

There is another grave that is worth some attention, that of the Debray family: I talked also about this in a previous post, but it may be good to repeat a few details:









The family owned a windmill on top of Montmartre, later to be known as the “Moulin de la Galette” - the only real mill still remaining on Montmartre (difficult to see as on private ground and hidden by trees).

The four Debray sons got killed during a fight with Russians which took place on Montmartre in 1814. (One was cut in pieces, with which the mill wings were “decorated”). They were all buried here and the mother put a small red painted miniature windmill on the top of the grave. The miniature is still there, has lost its colour, but it was the origin of the name “Moulin Rouge”.

Most of the graves are today of course abandoned, are covered with moss (see top picture) and - due to the season - a lot of leaves… In some cases you find a small symbolic flower. The surrounding walls are covered by wild vine.

On the way back home, I passed by the Montmartre vineyard, which I also have posted about, and could not avoid taking some photos of the vine plants (the grapes are gone) and also some other wild vine I found on my way.

*/Actually he got a state funeral and his ashes are now at the Pantheon together with those of many other French heroes, but his heart is still in the cave.

I wish you a nice weekend! Back on Monday!

Cité Véron

A few meters from Moulin Rouge, there is a small side street tat I discovered by chance. It’s called Cité Véron.

Different from the street in front, here you can suddenly find a complete calm. I met an old gentleman who wondered what I was doing there; not used to “tourists” with a camera. Consider that that we are so close to Moulin Rouge, Pigalle and all the rest…

Actually I managed to slightly climb a wall and then you can see the roof and the backside of Moulin Rouge. Less captivating than the front!

The very kind gentleman told me that some personalities used to live here, names which say a lot to a Frenchman and maybe some others: Jacques Prévert and Boris Vian were neighbours and shared the same balcony.

Somebody seems to have discovered that under some old painting, there was an old manifest and then left it there without repainting on it (sincere thanks). I have difficulties to read it in complete, but it’s obviously a quite revolutionary text. The man portrayed below seems to have some kind of Marx beard, but it’s not him. ??

This is what I could read. Someone ready to fill in?

“NOUS VOUL…révolution universelle… culturelle…politique…. fondé sur…nation et sur le…d’autorité…pour les travailleurs, liberté pour tous les oppr… inateurs et exploiteurs de toute sorte… tous les états…apelles politiques ou re…Il s’agit de détruire… stitutions et les lois…policières…ersitaires, économ…les hommes délivrés du trav…leur liberté. »

You can find the original pictures on my photoblog.

La Goulue

(I will not continue my series of tombs at the Montmartre cemetery for ever, but there are still a few to come...)

Louise Weber was born in 1866 and died in 1929. As a young girl she went dancing with friends. Her way of dancing was sometimes a bit provocative and you could ocasionally see her legs and perhaps even more, when she moved around. She soon got the nickname "la Goulue" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Goulue), obviously because she drank from all glasses which were staying around.

She got acquainted with some painters, like Renoir and did some posing.

Louise and her sister got an engagement at the newly opened "Moulin Rouge" in 1889 (she was then 23). She bacame quickly a star and can be considered as the inventor of the "cancan". Her last years were less glorious. She was actually buried in a Paris suburb cemetary, but Jacques Chirac decided in 1992 to transfer her ashes to the Montmartre cemetary. Some 2000 people plus press, radio and television assisted.

Part of her fame comes of course from the Toulouse-Lautrec paintings and posters. You can here see some of them, but also some photos of what she really looked like. I guess she became popular more for her personality than for her beauty - although the criteria for beauty change with the time.

Moulin Rouge

During an evening walk last week, I could not avoid taking a photo of the "Moulin Rouge". I don't think it is necessary to make any particular comments around this tourist attraction. Everybody knows about Toulouse-Lautrec and the rest...

One thing I just learned is that "Moulin Rouge" is the biggest champagne buyer in the world - around 350 000 bottles a year. It means more or less 1000 bottles per day. It corresponds obviously to one pro mille of the world production. Personally, my own purchasing corresponds to about 0,00001 pro mille of the world production. I will try to improve.