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Day 323: War memorial

I took a very long walk today – over 3 hours (in boots, not really advisable) – at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. Surprisingly, despite all the trips in and out of Paris over the years, not to mention the months that I’ve been living here, I have never visited this cemetery before. I don’t know what took me so long either.

I wandered randomly without the help of a map, which actually made it slightly tricky, given the vast size of the cemetery. I barely covered about 1/3 of the grounds. Relying on “look where the crowd goes” strategy, that was how I spotted a few famous graves here and there. Not only that, there are also a number of memorial monuments, including this one above, in commemoration of Holocaust victims of Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg.

The cemetery itself is historical, beautiful and calm for most part. A place I should revisit so I can continue my exploration…

Day 153: Monument aux 50 Otages

Wheeeee… long weekend!

My friends and I left reasonably early this morning for Nantes, in an attempt to avoid heavy traffic leaving Paris given the ritualistic exodus of Parigots for destinations all over the country (and beyond?) for the 4-days weekend. For us, we’re off for a much needed quiet R&R weekend in a small village just outside of Nantes and all I anticipate doing are eating, sleeping, chit-chatting and reading. Maybe a bit of sight-seeing.

This monument at Pont Morand in Nantes is a war time commemorative memorial sculpture. In 1941, fifty hostages were captured and executed by German occupation authorities for their pro-communist and anti-fascism efforts. The monument serves as reminder of their resistance against the occupation and it is represented by an central arrow flanked by two women, allegorical for la Résistance (to the right, with a sword concealed in the folds of the cape) and la France Renaissante (to the left, holding an ear of corn).

Ps: pretty blue sky is always a good start to the weekend ;)


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