Spring Break . . .

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Hi Everyone,
Have been taking a little bit of a Spring break from blogging, and just wanted to drop back in here and let you all know that I'm thinking of you, and although am missing the blog world, am also re-charging my batteries and catching up on some long neglected work around the house, which needs to be done from time to time... Spring cleaning is a time tested ritual that does a world of good. So there you go. My best wishes to each and every one of you in this unseasonably warm northern hemisphere end of winter.
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Was out the other day in Paris and saw the sights presented below, nothing special really, just some slices of life observed off the cuff. I often take photos based on a simple visual impression, working quickly without allowing time for much thought process to occur other than visual reaction and trying to get the camera settings in the right place for the right light. In general things just kind of leap out of the landscape at me and if they get my attention, then there's a good chance they will be photographed. Hope you enjoy...
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The "BO-tilted U" was above a closed down "Boulangerie" or bakery shop in Paris... seen better days.
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Knowing how much Virginia enjoys the red side of Paris, just thought she might like to get her hair done here someday... it is near Père Lachaise cemetery.
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Facades...
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I liked this neon "Gallery" sign, would like even better to see it lit up at night, but wasn't going to hang around all evening that day...
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And finally a reflection was needed to slip in for the tail end of James Weekend Reflections, this also from the abandoned bakery shop facade.
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Another Side of Paris . . .

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The Buttes Chaumont Park in the 19th arrondisement of Paris is a little off the beaten tourist track, but is a pleasant place where people go to stroll on a sunny spring afternoon (ok, technically it's not Spring yet, but it sure felt like it day before yesterday). I had never walked into the Buttes Chaumont from the northeast entrance until the other day, and was surprised to discover a section of abandoned railroad tracks running under a pair of bridges at the edge of the park, and some splashes of intriguing looking colors alongside them. It turns out the train tracks there are part of what is known as "la petite ceinture", a circular railway which went around the interior of Paris, built in the mid 1800's, now out of service.
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It turned out there was an easy way to climb down to the track level by scrambling down a slope under some bushes, so down I went, it seemed too tempting to resist a closer look. The person just visible with what looks like a torch was practicing her juggling flaming baton routine.
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Just below a bridge someone had laid out some wood crates with soil in them for planting things, which will no doubt be sprouting soon, given how unseasonably warm the weather has been of late.
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There was quite a bit of graffiti about, some of which was keeping a close eye on things...
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An old piano keyboard had somehow ended up down there by the tracks, apparently at the end of its road in life... no more music from those keys.
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Exercises in the absurd...
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Who was she ?
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Even Jerome Mesnager had stopped by at some point to paint one of his famous white men...
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Someone has a sense of humour...
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A suspended blue sneaker, speaking volumes of mysteries...
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Almost Infinite Père Lachaise . . .

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In Paris for an appointment on Monday morning, I couldn't help but take a short stroll through Père Lachaise Cemetery on my way home, given that I was already in the neighborhood. Père Lachaise is such a vast and dense burial ground, an almost infinite open air museum, that each time I venture into those criss-crossing alleys and winding paths of memory and history, invariably I come away amazed at all that can be found there, even when simply wandering at random, without the use of a guide or map, as I did the other day. While treading the cobblestone streets or remote corners along the cemetery walls, one can find all manner of fascinating memorials and funerary artwork, or touching details among objects left in veneration and mourning at the solemn place of eternal rest for a loved one. It is always a challenge for me to choose among the photographs taken therein, to select a few to share with you out of the total. The other day I made over 150 photos inside those ancient walls, what follows is just a handful. And appropriate for an entry on Julie's Taphophile Tragics meme out in Australia.
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This first caught my attention when I stumbled on it by chance; a foot surgeon who had cared for the toes of those no less than the brother of Louis XVI, the imperial Napoleon and Josephine, and who later ministered to the podiatry of Charles X. Quite an illustrious career for Tobias Koen who lived to be well over 90 years of age. I wonder what tales he could tell of such remarkable toes, nails, arches, or insteps, and what royal odors he may have been thus subjected to as an occupational hasard, what insights into their elevated souls he may have gained through studying their soles ? 
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An angel's wing, ready to take flight toward destinations unknown...
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A cherub performing a disappearing act, disintegrating into grainy, sooty oblivion...
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Fallen flowers with feather; forgotten, faded, forlorn... (but photographed)
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A minimalist crucifixion, headless, armless, legless, harmless...
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A cluster of ragged reproduction roses, worn, frayed, tired, but retaining their rosy colors and rosy forms...
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When I took this photo of a lovely praying young beauty, I failed to notice the two ladybugs who had settled in close communion in her sculpted hair...
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From both fore and aft she radiated loveliness...
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Père Lachaise is on a hilly piece of ground, and thus is built up on several levels, some requiring stairways to ascend or descend from one area to another...
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One can find all sorts of stories there, like that of this Iranian Kurd leader, assassinated in Vienna in 1989, but buried in Paris. Mysteriously the three people allegedly responsible for his murder were allowed to leave Austria and return to Iran. No one ever stood trial for his death, nor the deaths of the two other Kurd representatives who were killed with him.
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Before coming upon this tombstone by chance I'd never heard of Jean-Baptiste Clément, nor his well known song "Le Temps des Cérises". A fine example of why wandering in cemeteries can be a culturally enriching activity.
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This small angel had lost her wings. What sort of brute would break the wings off an angel ?
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This grave looking young man died in captivity in Germany during WWI at the age of 21, having served as a machine gunner during the war. He now gazes into an impenetrable distance.
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Although I searched a bit I couldn't come up with any details about L. Barbot, who is remembered as a historien of Père Lachaise. But my searching did lead me to a website about cemeteries that I had not come across before containing large numbers of photographs and much other information about cemeteries, primarily in Paris and France, but with many entries from other places in the world... if you have minute do take a look at lescimetieres dot com.
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Finally for today one last tomb of interest found during a haphazard exploration is that of René Mesmin who died while making a second attempt to establish a distance record by flying from Paris to Tokyo in 1931. A first attempt had already ended in failure with the loss of an aircraft and a brush with death over Siberia, but he persisted, and the second effort proved fatal. Searching for information about Mesmin led me to another website I had not previously come across, which also contains a wealth of information and photos about Père Lachaise : the APPL, which stands for Amis et Passionnés du Père Lachaise... Friends and people passionate for Père Lachaise Cemetery. Happy hunting. Or should I say, happy haunting ?
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Eternal Light . . .

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While in Paris the other day for a morning trip to the Pitié-Salpetrière Hospital, in the church inside the hospital grounds I stumbled on the following artwork in a side chapel on a wall where it would be very easy to miss this surprising piece of graphic arts. I don't know who created it, when, or why, so there is some research to be done in that regard... If any of you alert and well-informed readers happen to know, please help enlighten me, I searched for quite a little while on Google but didn't come up with anything pertinent. These starkly drawn death's heads caught my eye particularly as they could very easily enter into the lexicon of artwork associated with the Grateful Dead, about which art a few previous posts have been done here.
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The message on the wall says in French : "Qu'ils reposent en paix et que la lumière du ciel les ésclaire éternellement". (old spelling of "éclaire"?), which translates as : "May they rest in peace and may the light of heaven illuminate them eternally".
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