There were a couple of places the Missus wanted to revisit during this trip to Paris. One of those was Pere Lachaise Cemetery. We were a bit overwhelmed during our previous visit and couldn't find a lot graves and sites we wanted to see. This time we were a lot more organized as we got to the Porte Gambetta entry to the cemetery.
The first thing you past as you make your way up L'avenue des Combattants are the various war memorials.
And you soon come to the Crematorium. The building is surrounded by tons of small niches; cubicles for the cremated. We spent some time wondering the courtyard and came across some really fascinating niches.
I found the following really touching.
"Toi et Moi" it simply says….."Me and You".
There are some interesting niches in the structure.
Must've been a Rolling Stones fan?
Painter and Poet.
And of course; the famous soprano Maria Callas.
One could spend a good amount of time here.
Many families have crypts for entire families.
There are graves that look ancient ruins……
To the sweet and touching.
Close by is this tomb.
This is where Oscar Wilde is buried. It is one of the most visited tombs in Pere Lachaise; there's quite a story behind the build. It had become a tradition for women to put on lipstick and leave an imprint of a "kiss" on the tomb. It would be covered with thousands of kisses; the cleaning effort was causing damage to the stone; so they put up a plastic barrier around the tomb.
Monument to national airline disasters.
Gertrude Stein's grave.
There's an entire area which memorializes the victims of Concentration Camps and the Nazi Resistance.
Gaunt, haunting statues top the memorials with names like Dachau, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Oranienburg and Sachsenhausen.
The concentration camp at Ravensbrück was created specifically for women prisoners and was used from 1939 – 1945. I had never heard of this concentration camp until I saw the memorial. After which, I came home and looked it up. Of the over 130,000 women imprisoned during the period of 1939 – 1945; only 15,000 survived.
My good friend Ale is a big fan of Edith Piaf; so I promised that I'd find her final resting place for her.
Her daughter who died at the age of two is buried beside her.
Bernard Verlhac might not be a name you recognize.
He was one of the twelve people assassinated in the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
Other famous gravesites.
I guess you're really famous when everyone knows you by just one name. I already took a photo of Jim Morrison's grave on my previous post; so while we walked by, I refrained.
Though I couldn't help but take another photo of this one.
We got back to the apartment in the 7th a bit pooped. It was a pretty damp and cold day. So, we decided to head up two blocks to Restaurant Dong Phat. Some pho sounded like just the thing. The menu is rather small; the seating tight, the two young ladies working fairly nice.
The place was quite busy and it seemed like most of the folks really liked the shrimp chips?????
The Missus went with the Pho Tai and I went with the Pho Sate.
Man, these folks love their sauces….from the cup of Hoisin to the jar of chili sauce; folks on other tables were just dumping it into their soup. Also, notice that mint seems to be a standard herb for pho 'round these parts.
This was a pretty small portion for over ten Euros. It was pretty weak and bland….no wonder folks were dumping all of that stuff into their pho. Just a few slices of rare beef; decent fat, but on the tough side and very squeaky beef balls. The Banh Pho used were really wide and undercooked.
The Missus fared no better with her cloudy, bland, beef ball filled bowl.
I'd read good things about this place and with the history of the French in Vietnam, I thought that would be one cuisine that would be excellent in Paris. Well, this made it "oh-for-one".
Dong Phat
10 rue Malar
75007 Paris, France
Well, at least I was fairly certain dinner was going to be good…..
Thanks for stopping by!