The Sisyphean Task

Today we visited the massive Pere-Lachaise Cemetery which features such notable people as Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Frederic Chopin, Marcel Proust and Oscar Wilde. Most of the graves were very ornate but Oscar Wilde's was just bizarre!. It was sort of egyptian-like at the top but the bottom was the most distinguishable feature of the grave... Take a look!

Oscar Wilde's grave is covered in kisses as you can see above. Apparently someone started the tradition to leave lip prints on the base of the grave and the lipstick kiss has stuck...literally. Every once in a while the grave is refurbished so the kisses are gone but someone restarts the tradition.
This is Edith Piaf's grave which is actually quite simple but really hard to find. Erika found it because she happened to be standing next to it when she refused to continue walking down a hill. Lucky us Erika can be a stubborn mule! One of Edith's songs was featured in Saving Private Ryan and she had a movie, La Vie en Rose, come out about her just recently that one two Oscar's and a Golden Globe.

After the Cemetery we travelled uphill for an extended period of time to reach Belleville Park which is one of the highest points in Paris. There is a series of magnificent gardens that stretch along a winding route and from the top of the hill you can see just about all of the city. It is an unbelievable sight and definitely worth the trek, even if Erika's feet were numb by the end of it.

One thing we forgot to mention last night was the Quebec Day celebration. Basically it is an excuse for any Quebec raised citizens of Paris to party and listen to some country music. Quebec is anti-Canada because they want to secede but Canada won't let them so there is constant rivalry. Imagine the Dixie Chicks singing in French and you get a good picture of what it was like. Although niether of us are huge fans of country music we had an absolute blast.