Montmartre Cemetery

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This is a picture of the cemetery in Montmartre, as seen from the rue de Caulaincourt, which passes over it. It’s pretty typical of Paris cemeteries, although it is less well known and somewhat smaller than the world-famouse Père Lachaise cemetery on the other side of town. Unlike the cemeteries of modern cities, the cemeteries of Paris are ornamented with immense tombstones, vaults, crypts, moss on the tombstones, and other spooky stuff. And yes, there are even black cats inhabiting the cemeteries; I turned around once in this very cemetery in Montmartre to see that I was being observed intently by a black cat sitting on a tombstone nearby. Oo-wee-oo!

The cemeteries of Paris are beautiful and fascinating, and admission is free (temporary admission, at least!). They are open during the daylight hours. For the better known cemeteries (including this one), you can usually buy a map of the cemetery at a nearby mortuary or flower shop that will point you to all the famous graves. The nice thing about this particular cemetery is that I was able to find a vantage point above it from which to take a relatively decent overall picture (no such vantage points exist in Père Lachaise).

Photographed on May 8, 1999.