After an early wake up for all of us ( looking forward to assimilating with Northern Hemisphere time!) we were off to the local marché for provisions. The market is one of my favourite French experiences… where strawberries taste like strawberries, tomatoes come in a range of colours, the asparagus is the size of …. well I'll leave it to you to decide that..
After stocking up we trudged back to the apartment to plan the rest of the day.
Sharon and Rosey headed off to try the hop on hop off bus whilst Russell and I promised to rendezvous at the Tower with picnic lunch provisions.
Russell and I wandered around the Latin Quarter, admiring amongst other things, the Panthéon, a large neoclassic building which now houses the remains of many distinguished French citizens. It was built initially as a church but now is home to the remains of Marie Curie, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Voltaire and Louis Braille just to name a few.
The Latin Quarter is where the Sorbonne is located along with many other higher learning establishments and gets its name from the fact that Latin was widely spoken here in the Middle Ages, being the 'language of learning.'
We wandered somewhat aimlessly for a couple of hours before heading back to fill the baguettes for lunch.
We met the girls for a pleasant lunch under the bulk of the Tower and they were all “bussed out” so we decided to tick one of Rosey's must sees off the list, the Père Lachaise cemetery.
Père Lachaise is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris (110 acres) and houses some famous inhabitants including the ones we managed to track down – Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison and Chopin – not that they were going anywhere 😉
Jim Morrison's has been roped off as fans insist on carrying out unspeakable activities atop it and imbibing various undesirable substances in his honour!
Call me weird but I love cemeteries and found many of the not so famous inhabitant's memorials absolutely beautiful….
Chopin
Our real mission here though was to find the grave of Victor Noir – a reporter who died in a duel with Bonaparte's great nephew. His life size and life like effigy ( right down to the semi erect penis under his clothes) has become a drawcard for women for many years thanks to the belief that rubbing “the spot” will ensure a husband within the year or at the very least a good sex life!
Poor Victor, I hope somewhere he has a smile on his face!
Tired but satisfied (!) we caught the metro back to the apartment, shelved the plan for roast pork and ate pizza and fruchocs on the balcony.
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