Paris 2017: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise #2: Léopold Hugo

The tomb of (General) Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo (1773–1828), father of Victor Hugo. He wrote several works under the name of Genti, among them: Mémoires sur les moyens de suppléer à la traite des nègres par des individus libres, etc. (1818) and Mémoires du general Hugo (1820).

Paris 2017: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise #1: Théodore Géricault

I can hardly believe, after many years of visiting the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, that I hadn't previously stumbled on the tomb of Théodore Géricault (1791–1824). And what a grave. The bronze statue of Géricault at the top, along with the bas-relief which is a representation of Géricault's painting of Le Radeau de La Méduse, are by Antoine Étex.

Paris 2017: Hyper Cacher and terrorism, Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne (94)

'À LA MÉMOIRE DES VICTIMES

DE L'ATTENTAT ANTISÉMITE

DU 9 JANVIER 2015

PERPÉTRÉ DANS LES LOCAUX

DU MAGASIN HYPER CACHER

PHILIPPE BRAHAM 45 ANS

YOHAN COHEN 20 ANS

YOAV HATTAB 21 ANS

FRANÇOIS-MICHEL SAADA 63 ANS

ILS SONT MORTS VICTIMES DU TERRORISME'

Paris 2017: Alexandra David-Néel in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne (94)

In Saint-Mandé is the Jardin Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969), whom this plaque calls 'the most famous female explorer in the world', which is perhaps true. But she was certainly born in Saint-Mandé at 57 Cours de Vincennes (now Avenue de Paris), near the entrance to the Hôpital Militaire Bégin. The plaque goes on to say that she made many journeys into Europe and Africa, then Asia, and that she was the first female western explorer to enter the forbidden city of Llasa. The plaque further relates that she died in Digne-les-Bains in her 101th year, which I recorded on my visit to Digne here. The small park, interestingly, has different areas dedicated to maps of the continents of the world.

Paris 2017: Cimetière Nord de Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne (94) #2: J. J. Grandville

 

Jean-Jacques Grandville, the pseudonym of Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard (1803–47), was a caricaturist and illustrator. He is perhaps most remembered for his illustrations of La Fontaine's work.

Paris 2017: Cimetière Nord de Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne (94) #1: Juliette and Claire Drouet

This plaque is outside the entrance to Saint-Mandé cemetery (Nord), and explains the reason for the twin tombs here relating to Victor Hugo. Before becoming Hugo's mistress, Juliette Drouet had a relationship with Jean-Jacques (or James) Pradier, from which Claire was born in 1826. Hugo loved her as his own daughter, was inspired by her when writing Les Contemplations, and she grew up in Saint-Mandé but died there in 1846 at the age of twenty. Juliette died in 1883 and, according to her wishes, was buried next to her daughter. The plaque says that Hugo, devastated, could not lead the procession and that it was Auguste Vacquerie who gave the farewell speech.

Paris 2017: Cimetière du Montparnasse: #10: Jean Itard

Jean Itard (1774–1838) was a doctor who is now largely known for his work in child psychiatry, more specifically for attentions to Victor de l'Aveyron, a relationship made famous by Truffaut's film L'enfant sauvage (1970). But he wrote many articles on other subjects, such as deafness and dumbness, and stuttering. The anchor on his tomb could represent hope or stability, or both.

Paris 2017: Cimetière du Montparnasse: #9: Jean Dutourd

Jean Dutourd (1920–2011) was a novelist, non-fiction writer and a member of the Académie française (incidentally replaced by Michael Edwards). His influences include Saint-Simon, Stendhal and Jean Giono, and his principal works are the novels Au bon beurre (1952) (set in the Occupation) and Les Horreurs de l'amour (1963).

Paris 2017: Cimetière du Montparnasse: #8: Jean Baudrillard

This year marks the tenth anniversary since the death of Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007), who was a sociologist, philosopher and 'disillusionist' noted for his work on the mass media and consumer society, the appropriation of the real world by the virtual. For someone who said the Iraq war didn't happen, it looks from the jungle that is his grave that his funeral never happened. His many works include Le Système des objets : la consommation des signes (1968), La Société de consommation (1970), Enrico Baj (1980), Simulacres et simulation (1981), La Gauche divine (1985), and 'Pataphysique (2000).

Paris 2017: Cimetière du Montparnasse: #7: Jacqueline de Romilly

Jacqueline de Romilly (1913–2010) was a philologist and Hellenist who was granted honorary Greek nationality in 1995. She was a member of the Académie française, the first female teacher at the Collège de France, and was known internationally for her works on the language and civilisation of ancient Greece, particularly relating to Thucydide, the subject of her doctoral thesis. Her grave refers to her as Jaqueline David, her maiden name.

Paris 2017: Cimetière du Montparnasse: #6: Gérard Lauzier

Gérard Lauzier (1932–2008) was a cartoonist, a playwright and a film director. His early cartoons are noted for their satire on certain groups of people, particularly those he regarded as hypocrites and power seekers. He turned to the theatre and cinema in the 1980s, but against all expectation returned to cartoons in the 1990s. His character Michel Choupon, a disillusioned adolescent, is perhaps his most noted creation.

Paris 2017: Cimetière du Montparnasse: #5: François Caradec

François Caradec (1924–2008) was a member of Oulipo and a writer of biographical works on, for instance, Lautéamont, Jarry, Raymond Roussel, Alphonse Allais (on whom he was an expert), Willy and Jane Avril of Moulin Rouge fame. He was also a cartoonist who specialised in caricatures.

Paris 2017: Cimetière du Montparnasse: #4: Théodore de Banville

'THÉODORE DE BANVILLE

NÉ LE

14 MARS 1823

MORT LE

13 MARS 1891'

Théodore de Banville was a poet and dramatist most noted for his poetical works Odes funambulesques (1857) and Les Exilés (1867). A friend of Baudelaire, Hugo and Théophile Gautier, he was considered one of the most important writers of his time and he was a precursor of the Parnassian school. There is a bust of him in the Jardin du Luxembourg, also included in this blog.

I am very grateful to Alain Combalot for helping us to find this and a number of other graves here.

Paris 2017: Cimetière du Montparnasse: #3: Henri Gaidoz

Henri Gaidoz (1842–1932), as his grave suggests, is best known as the founder of the Revue Celtique, which began in 1871. He also, according to Wikipédia, founded Mélusine in 1877, a journal concerned with ethnography and popular mythologies. He became an orphan at an early age, was adopted, and remained unmarried all his life, devoting his life to study. He studied at university in Germany, in Breton, Welsh and Irish. In 1876 he became Professor of Celtic Philology and Director of Celtic Studies at the École des Hautes études.

Paris 2017: Cimetière du Montparnasse: #2: Armand Dalian

Armand Dalian (1924–2000) was a 'Bohemian' French Armenian painter who lived and worked in Montparnasse. He didn't belong to any particular artistic movement. He is buried here with his wife Pascale Paulette Morizot, and the reverse of his headstone shows one of his paintings with a verse by Gilles Roca.

Paris 2017: Cimetière du Montparnasse: #1: Paul Bourget

'PAUL
BOURGET
2 SEPTEMBRE
1852
25 DÉCEMBRE
1935'

Paul Bourget was a Catholic convert who wrote novels, short stories, non-fiction, plays and poems. Generally considered as his best work, the novel Le Disciple (1889) is a roman à thèse in which modern science is denounced as a substitute for religion, but without any morality.

Émile Decroix, 15e arrondissement, Paris

106 rue Brancion, 15e arrondissement.

'À ÉMILE DECROIX

Propagateur de la viande de cheval

1821–1901'

Émile Decroix was a military veterinary surgeon most noted for his advocacy of eating horse meat, on which he published a number of papers. His impressive busts stands very close to the Parc George Brassens, on the site of abattoirs. He is less known for his anti-smoking papers.

While on the subject of this site, I must mention that a few yards away, where the abattoirs used to be, is the Marché du livre, where a number of booksellers display their wares on weekends. I first learned of this space in Edmund White's The Flâneur, and had to visit. I've now been at least three times, but never again, as I've never bought a single book. It's not just some booksellers' steep prices: it's much more than that. A few years ago I saw a video of the place on YouTube, in which a bookseller mocks a previous visitor who asked him if he sells books: his sarcastic reply is that no, he simply took the trouble of driving his books a fair distance and then displayed them here to give them an airing. I found this funny at the time, and obviously the visitor was an idiot, right? Far from it, as I found out: she was the sarcastic one, and the guy who thought he was so smart just wasn't smart at all. The times I went to Rue Brancion I saw several books I wanted to buy, but no one appeared to be selling: you can usually find booksellers stuffing their faces, opening bottles of wine and chatting to other booksellers, but usually there is no one in sight to take your money from you. I'd have felt a little stupid waving a book in the air trying to attract an unknown seller's attention. I've come to a conclusion: the last thing in the world here that most booksellers want to do is to have anyone take their precious books from them. Go to the nearest vide-grenier, Boulinier, Gibert Joseph, Gibert Jeune, the bouquinistes, even the dreaded fnac, but leave this place well alone and let the guys drink their wine in peace!

Saint-Leu, Amiens, Somme (80)

There are many beautiful houses in Amiens, particularly in and around the Saint-Leu area. Here, they are slender, tall, Dutch-style houses, many of them family dwellings, a few rented out as holiday homes, and a some like this splendid ancient house in need of vital attention. This is a lovely town.

Marcel Sueur in Amiens, Somme (80)

 

Built in 1901, this house of monumental mason Marcel Sueur is on Rue Saint Maurice, opposite the Cimetière de la Madeleine. This was also Sueur's workshop. The sculpture in the centre is by Valentin Molliens (1868–1937) from Longpré-les-Amiens, and is a representation of Sueur's wife Andrée (née Largemain).

René Goblet in Amiens, Somme (80)

René Goblet (1828–1905) was a journalist and politician. In 1869, with Frédéric Petit and Jules Lardière, he founded the radical republican journal Le Progrès de la Somme. For a short time, between 1888 and 1889, he was minister for foreign affairs in Charles Floquet's government. This monument is dedicated to Goblet, is called La Conscience, and is sculpted by Jacques Perrin.

René Goblet's grave in the Cimetière de la Madeleine, Amiens.

Charles Dallery in Amiens, Somme (80)

Le square Montplaisir, Amiens. Charles Dallery (1754–1835), born in Amiens, was essentially an inventor of things mechanical. The son of an organ maker, he followed in his father's footsteps by making organs himself and repaired the organs for Amien's Notre-Dame cathedral. He also made high precision clocks and improved the functioning of the harp, although he wasn't recognised for it.

In 1780 he invented a steam machine with a tubular boiler. In 1803 he took out a patent as the first person to use a propellor on a steam ship.

However, his attempts to introduce a windmill with horizontally turning sails, according to his Wikipédia entry, resulted in him being nicknamed 'moulin de la folie', and the 'mad' and obviously severely wounded Dallery leaving Amiens for good. Dallery died in Jouy-en-Josas, where he is buried.

Jules Verne in Amiens (80) (continued)

The Boulevard Jules Verne about a kilometre south of the centre of Amiens was once called the Boulevard Longueville. At number 44 was Verne's other house, and as the plaque below states, this is where he died. It also says he lived here for fourteen years.

'JULES VERNE

VÉCUT 14 ANS

DANS CETTE MAISON

IL Y MOURUT

LE 24 MARS 1905'

Not far from Jules Verne's museum is this monument: a bust of Verne with children at the base reading his Voyages extraordinaires. It was sculpted in 1908 by Albert Roze a year after he enhanced Verne's tomb so extravagantly.

A number of Verne's works are engraved on the other side of the statue, plus a globe.