Montparnasse

We've been staying in a hotel near Montparnasse, a neighborhood with lots of activity until late at night, a variety of appealing restaurants, and several large department stores in a big shopping center. Two famous things here are the Tour de Montparnasse, a huge skyscraper that dominates the Paris skyline, and the Cemetery of Montparnasse where many famous people are buried. Both of these landmarks appear in the photo above.

On a rather long walk around the cemetery we saw or looked for tombs of various famous people, including the mathematician Henri Poincaré, the writers Sartre and De Beauvoir, the singer Serge Gainsbourg, and the famous victim of French injustice Alfred Dreyfus. We were a bit surprised that although there are evidently some areas of the cemetery with all or mostly Jewish graves, other Jewish graves are interspersed with those of Christians. The French style of large marble slab-type graves and small mausoleums predominates. Some graves are very well maintained with fresh flowers and clean shiny marble; others appear abandoned, with moss and lichens on the stone and the epitaphs nearly effaced.

I have many more photos of diverse things I've done in Paris, which I'll surely continue posting when I get home next week to my quiet and much less strenuous life!