Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Pere-Lachais Cemetery Encore

One of the eeriest monuments at Cemetiere du Pere-Lachais: the tomb of the Famille Raspail.

According to my guidebook, Francoise Raspail was a much-imprisoned partisan of the 1830 and 1840 revolutions and that is why the tomb is in the form of a prison.

This bust freaked me out with the staring eyes. I took a photo because of the Egyptian motif (sun, vulture wings, cobras) and my husband surprised the heck out of me by knowing who this is. Joseph Fourier who somehow had something to do with Champollion and the decipherment of Egyptian heiroglyphs.

And more photos of the cemetery. These are all from my August 17th trip. I haven't been back yet.









The Halloween link of the day is for Lori Rudolph, aka Retro-Rudolph's. She does very retro looking papier mache bobble heads and candy boxes. I adore the faces on her creations, in particular the devils and black cats. Take a look at the Sly Devil with Fez on this page- he's my favorite.
No wonder Sly Devil With Fez struck a chord. Take a look at another set of my shelves decorated for Halloween. That's a fez on the top shelf (no reason for it to be there, other than never finding a place to put it after we moved in), a devil here and there, and on the bottom shelf, last but not least, Devil Bob, my only creation in this picture.

13 comments:

Quilts And Pieces said...

Wow, is that top statue emotional. You just glance it and have a rush of emotions run through you! We just don't have "art" like that here! Those eyes on the bust are way too creepy!

Joyce said...

Pere Lachaise is certainly eerie enough to be on a Halloween post!

Tracey in CT said...

The cemetary photos certainly do have a Halloween-y vibe to them!

sewprimitive karen said...

Oh, perfect, some scary cemetery photos as Halloween approaches! As Dawn says, it would be difficult to find a U.S. cemetery this arty. The arm reaching up in that top photo totally makes me shudder.

atet said...

Beautiful photos -- reminds me that I should dig out some of mine from Lafayette #1 in New Orleans -- a very similar feeling to these.

Kieny The Dutchlady said...

Happy Birthday Tonya, wish you a wonderful day!

Katie said...

Thanks for taking me along again. I do love to travel with you.

ForestJane said...

I never thought too much about cemetaries till I took a class in college called 'Sociology of Death' where we had to visit 10 different ones. The assignment had us finding the oldest grave, person who was oldest at death, most recent grave, doing tombstone rubbings with newsprint and chalk, etc. It turned out to be very interesting.

And I think it's time for another cat fix from you... The last one posted of Pokey didn't even show much of her beautiful face. :)

YankeeQuilter said...

Atet beat me to the post...I was thinking of New Orleans as well! Very spooky...imagine coming across those eyes on a foggy evening! Yikes.

dutchcomfort said...

I love to wander around Père Lachaise. It‘s such an amazing cemetery to visit, especially in October! High Halloween-level!
I made a lot of papier mache ‘art’ (ha ha) some years ago. It was wonderful to do, till I discovered fabrics!

Quilting Pirate said...

I know I keep saying this, but I love your eye. Your talent to pick out the most unusual architectural pieces that intrigue me. I bet it would be so fun to go on one of your walks.

Can you email me your address, please? I found a few Halloween decorations yesterday that reminded me of you!

Laurie Ann said...

There was some great Day of the Dead stuff at the Native American Museum that just opened up on the mall here in D.C. It made me think of you. I didn't buy anything, although, in retrospect, I am regretting that. Another time maybe ...

Anonymous said...

Now that's a cemetery. Beautiful and eerie photos that make me want to learn more. (heads to Google) Thank you for sharing!