mads in france: picture taking anonymous

i have a little problem.

its called: i take lots of pictures.

i just like to document life.

want to know how many pictures i have taken

thus far?

i bet you are curious.

(it's been less than two months)

5,564.

and i took 324 today.

looks like i'll have a few extra to post tomorrow too.

em and i had a lazy morning than we headed out at about noon on yet another walk.

this one in the cemetery pere-lachaise, the largest cemetery in paris.

there were moments of silence, moments of joy, moments of laughter, moments when i was suddenly hit with the awareness of the fragility of life when peering down into a dug up grave, moments that were somber and sobering while we walked along unknown graves of those who died in concentration camps, moments of sunshine, and moments of rain. it was a truly captivating walk and we got caught up in each and every moment.

outfit. hair.

we were excited about the sunshine,

decided to go coatless,

and made a joke about how funny it would be if it started raining.

emily was a great navigator.

a map is absolutely one hundred percent needed for this adventure.

preferably a good one.

much like the other cemetery we visited, eclectic tombs went on forever. in fact, for 188 acres. over 70,000 tombs. literally.

one of the first notable dead we happened upon was Seurat, a painter who was known for pointillism.

i like sunshine and color.

note: the whole cemetery is completely cobblestones.

the book said to wear good shoes, and that would be smart.

emily and i had to get our daily work out in,

we did some squats as we walked up uneven stairs

throughout the cemetery are all kinds of random famous people, like jim morrison, lead singer of the doors. our book literally told us to follow the scent of marijuana to find his tomb. we did not actually smell any of that, though some people had found interesting ways of paying tribute.

another famous one: chopin

some of the gravestones were a little bizarre/random. like this one of some unknown holding what we thought was a loaf of bread, but then turned out to be someone's head.

we were struggling to find a famous painter, Gericault, whom we actually just studied in the louvre on monday. luckily, this two dread-locked man popped out of nowhere, tapped emily on the head, and told us where to go. rather, showed us.

after gericault, emily and i stopped for a little picnic lunch. we made fools of ourselves trying to eat this carrot delight we brought along. it was dripping everywhere, including on emily's jeans, and just made for a messy meal. hopefully our laughter wasn't disturbing the peaceful dead too much. it was a hilarious lunch.

eating a jam and cheese baguette and pondering the meaning of life,

or maybe death.

after lunch we stopped at the tombs of the famous french playwrights fontaine and moliere. the two had matching tombs that were guarded off with a little fence. we also made our way into the crematorium which smelled like burning... something. we were sufficiently creeped out.

i found a hidden mickey.

a black cat even crossed out path.

kind of creepy.

our book told us about the scandalous author oscar wilde and how his fans kiss his tomb to show appreciation. kissing a tomb? sounds pretty wild. i told emily i was going to do it. luckily i come prepared for these kinds of situations. mac lipstick? check.

nothing like a last minute glamour shot in the midst of a graveyard.

it was absolutely a glorious place to take pictures. if it wasn't a bit bizarre and morbid, i could totally imagine some awesome wedding pictures in an old cemetery like this one.

remember that funny joke about the possibility of rain?

just as we were leaving it started! (not funny.)

luckily we were nearby a metro so we scurried right on out of there.

after our graveyard extravaganza emily and i headed home to grab coats, then headed back into the city for our second picnic of the day: picnic dinner on the steps of la grande arche. it was a little cold and a little rainy but it was so worth it. we got to watch the city get all lit up while we ate our dinners. i still can't get over that this is my city. love.

city lights.