Today was beautiful and sunny so we walked down the street to the cemetery! Yes, the Pere Lachaise Cemetery (http://www.pere-lachaise.com/perelachaise.php?lang=en) is a half mile from our apartment so we decided to visit all the dead geniuses interred there. This cemetery is huge and genuinely ancient but still accepting new residents. We visited Jim Morrison's grave, probably the most visited in the whole place. We nodded at Fred. Chopin's grave and stopped a minute at Heloise and Abelard's tomb. This is a beautiful stone canopy over their graves made from the stones of Heloise's convent and Abelard's priory. Sigh...such a sad and romantic story...so French, mais oui. In case you need a refresher of the story of Heloise and Abelard, you can read here: http://www.abelardandheloise.com/Story.html.

 We had seen enough of dead people by then, so we wandered out the gate and hopped a bus to the Ile de Cite, the historical center of Paris, the island in the middle of the Seine . We had visited Notre Dame here a few days ago and our goal was to see the Conciergerie (http://www.aviewoncities.com/paris/conciergerie.htm), the infamous prison that housed the nearly 3000 victims of the guillotine during the French Revolution. The building is genuinely medieval, built as a palace and then turned into a prison. We toured the large vaulted meeting hall and saw recreated cells of prisoners held during the Revolution including Marie Antoinette's cell where she was held for two months before her execution. We plan to visit Versailles tomorrow so we'll see the life of luxury that brought her to her final home at the Conciergerie. 

We walked around the area a bit and noticed lots of British and French flags flying as they are preparing for a visit from the Queen of England shortly (tomorrow, maybe?) Then, we ventured into the Metro to ride back to our apartment. After a missed stop and retracing of our tracks, we made it back safe and sound for a quiet evening at home. Perhaps we'll venture out for some dinner later, but for now it's nice to take off my shoes and put up my feet. All this history is exhausting!