Armistice Day . . . In Memory . . .

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Armistice Day on November 11th in France marks the end of the First World War, and for the USA it is Veterans Day, and Remembrance Day for the UK. The other day I was a little over an hour early for a train leaving from la Gare Montparnasse to go out to Brittany, so I took a stroll through parts of Montparnasse Cemetery to see what I could see. Following my feet where they might lead me, by chance I stumbled on some interesting bits of history related to la Grande Guerre, pertinent for posting on Armistice Day.
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This first photo shows the tomb of Marie Joseph Eugene Bridoux, who was the first French General killed in the war in September 1914. His son and a grandson were also officers in the French Army, both of them stayed loyal to the Petain government in Vichy during the Second World War, collaborating with the Germans. The son fled to Spain after the war, and was sentenced to death in absentia by France in 1948. The grandson who served with a unit under the Germans in WWII known as the LVF, or Legion of French Volunteers, died in 1945 in Germany. One can only imagine how General Bridoux, buried in Montparnasse after his heroic death in battle, killed by a German bullet, might have felt about his son and grandson collaborating with the Nazis.
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Not far from General Bridoux is the tomb of Armand Cahen, a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment, who died in 1920 at the age of 22, after being awarded the War Cross (Croix de Guerre) for bravery during a heavy shelling attack in June 1918 where toxic gas shells were used. His memorial was quite elaborate, between the large marble sculpture of him and the stone and stained glass enclosure it stands in. I stayed there for a long moment in reverence, and was pondering his fate when the sun came out from behind some clouds, sending bright rays through the stained glass to bathe the white stone bust in red and green light, transforming him.
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Nearby stands a large structure built over the grave of another artillery officer, Marcel Suss, killed in the very early days of the war.
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I had gotten up fairly close to the glass doors of the monument to see the reflected clouds in the glass, when I realized there was a stained glass portrait of Lieutenant Suss in the back wall of the tomb. In all my years of exploring cemeteries, keeping my eyes open for the unusual, I've never seen anything quite like this colorful work on glass with a fine portrait of the deceased.
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A bit further on was one tomb for two brothers killed in the war, the first at Verdun in 1916, and the younger brother in Belgium in October 1918; just a few weeks before the end of the war.
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This camouflaged, chameleon like crucifixion figure was spotted on a gravestone the day previous to the photos from Montparnasse above, in a village near Amiens. I've never seen a Christ figure like this blending in so perfectly with the background. The spot of lichen on his chest seems to form an inverted heart. A minor miracle there ?
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On another grave in the same cemetery a piece of cast iron which fell from an ornate but deteriorating cross above seemed to form a question mark against the cold wet stone it was lying on. Indeed, so many unanswered questions about war and death, rusting iron and lichen on stone, passing time and passing lives. May your Armistice/Remembrance/Veterans Day be rich in reflections.
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As one of the photos above has a reflection of blue sky, cloud, and tree in a glass door, am linking this to James' Weekend Reflections, where I've been too long absent.
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