beauty and dead people

I saw a lot of dead people this weekend. Of course, not exactly dead people, but a lot of graves (so technically they are dead). Montparnasse Cemetery and the Pantheon are the final resting places (why am I smiling as I write that phrase?) of such literary greats as Samuel Beckett, Susan Sontag, Simone de Beauvoir, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, as well as various artists and photographers that my colleague, Rebecca, swooned over as I did with these famed authors. 

In Montparnasse, it was like a treasure hunt looking for the graves. Luckily, Rebecca can read a map, and I’m pretty good at being anal and stubborn when faced with a challenge, so we found everyone we set out to discover. For someone who really doesn’t have a history of visiting gravesites—and for you cynics who are right now thinking, “Who does?” there are lots of movies and TV shows that have people doing this—I was ridiculously awed when coming upon Beckett’s site. Why?  It was pretty unassuming. There were other nicer graves, works of art really, but it was an interesting moment for me. I don’t know if it was the contrast of a priest singing among a small group of women at one gravesite, the silence of the cemetery, the coldness of the day, or the kisses on Beauvoir and Sartre’s headstone (they are buried together), but I did have a moment of beauty and thankfulness for, well, life really. Thank you, Rebecca, for taking me there.

Can you make out "Beckett"?



Works of art really.

The kisses got to me.

I also have to thank Rebecca for something I’ve never quite experienced: walking around with someone who always has her “head camera” turned on. My colleague is a professor of photography, and I can’t tell you how many times this past weekend (we walked a ton and also visited Notre Dame and Jardin du Luxembourg) she would stop in mid-sentence, strike her shooting stance, and click a number of pictures. Always cool images. Always something I hadn’t noticed before. I couldn’t help but pick up a few tips. I now know how to turn my camera flash off, and even once (pause for dramatic effect) took the same picture with the flash on AND off to see what the different effects would be. I’m such a word person that the visual stuff doesn’t get much of a workout in my head, but it’s impossible not to be more open to images around Rebecca (thanks again my friend).  

So even if my pictures are still terrible, at least I feel more artistic taking them, especially if I’m wearing my beret.

How cool is she.

Yup, Notre Dame in the background (couldn't resist posting this).