Halloween: Paris style!

 Happy Halloween!

   Halloween in Paris was definitely different than in the states. First of all, it just isn't the same holiday and really isn't celebrated the same way. Halloween the American way is getting more popular, but French traditions are just a lot older than American ones and deeply-rooted at that. Because of globalization and English classes French people know about the American tradition of Halloween, but it's really only been common knowledge since the 90's. 

      Because Catholicism is a major part of French culture most people instead celebrate All Saints Day, which is on November 1(think Memorial Day). However, the younger crowd who have been exposed to marketing campaigns and are not opposed to the American cultural influence often have Halloween parties with costumes, etc. The difference I noticed is that people tend to focus on the scary instead of the cute/flirty costumes that seem to be more popular in the U.S. Also, trick-or-treating isn't very popular, but that's also part of living in a big city.

     Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because of the dressing-up part--it's so fun to get all costumed up! However, because I'm doing Halloween French-style this year I didn't get to really dress up (I did a half-hearted attempt at a fey-thing costume) so that was sad. Quand meme (all the same), French-style was pretty great!

   We went to the massive cemetery:

 Père Lachaise!

"All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity."
Hamlet Act 1 Scene II

It was fun to go and see all of the beautiful tombs/crypts, but the place was so massive we didn't see very much of it (110 acres!)

 Here are some of my favorite tombstones:

Spooky!

The Adam's Family!

And now for the grand finale:

An art nouveau tombstone!!!!

So...when I die, can I have this one?

  It was a very nice, peaceful sort of place, the sun was shining, and it felt really great to be alive!

    Père Lachaise is one of the most famous and frequently visited cemeteries because of all of the important/famous historical people who are buried there.  

I...don't know who this is...

So we made a quick visit to pay our respects to a couple of our favorite people.

Mr. Chopin:

 Madame Edith Piaf:

Mr. Oscar Wilde:

His tomb was being cleaned from all of his fans' kisses. 

Mr. Jim Morrison:

On the way to one of the tombs I spied:

    Seeing a butterfly at a cemetery seemed very appropriate considering all of the butterfly mythology dealing with the souls of the departed.

   En route to a tomb this shady character started talking to us:

  Sorry, I didn't get a very good picture--it's awfully hard to take paparazzi shots of someone who is talking to you. Anyway, this is Gabrielle who approached us and proceeded to talk about the importance of remembering those who have passed on. He's a gravedigger. As soon as he said that I almost sniggered because I was thinking about the grave-diggers in Hamlet, and it was just so perfectly creepy.

      He then told us he'd show us around and take us on some shortcuts to the tombs we were wanting to go see. He spoke pretty great English, and when we commented on it he proceeded to give the most heart-felt, dramatic speech about all you need to succeed in life is love and desire. I couldn't help but giggle a bit though, he had a heavy accent and was so into what he was saying, and this situation was so unexpected--it was like something out of a spoofy movie (think O Brother Where Art Though). I definitely tried sneakily filming it, but the problem with being sneaky is that you can easily get great audio, but the movie is of everyone's bums....so I'll try to get the audio up because it's so funny!
      He took us all over the place and it was only about half way through that we started suspecting that this was probably part of a complex kidnapping plan or a sort of a thing where he'd demand payment for the tour. It really was a dodgy situation, and even better because it was set in a maze-like cemetery--what other elements do you need for a horror film? I really might make this story into a "B"-grade horror film because as he was talking about Jim Morrison's death he said something to the effect of: "He, like you, was American and he, like you, came to Paris and visited Pere Lachaise and seven days later he was dead." *cue scary music*! It was quite eerie! Also, he smelled like death. He had this smell of something rancid and rotting that you'd occasionally get when you were down-wind from him. Even after *we got away you'd get a little whiff now and then...it lingered.... BOO! No but really, I'm not exaggerating. He was probably a zombie, or even worse-- a non-sparkly vampire!

      And that was my French Halloween experience. It was just the right amount of spooky and mystery without getting out of control. I definitely prefer American Halloween, but the experience of getting let to potential doom by a grave-digger was the most legitimate Halloween thing I've ever done. Hope y'all Halloween-American-style celebrators had fun, ate some lovely bon-bons, and found super cool costumes!

For some spooky-ish music check out Lykke Li 

* How did we "get away"? Well, we pretended we had to go and meet up with someone else in our group, so we hurriedly thanked him, said goodbye, and left. He was really nice about it, I had thought he would insist on us paying him for the tour, but he just let us go. I kinda feel bad now, we probably should have tipped him--maybe he's just lonely and likes giving tours? Well, I have 6 days left now if my scary-film idea is indeed reality, so maybe we didn't get off as easily as I had thought. *duh, duh, duuuuhhhhhh* Ok. I'm really freaked out now, I shouldn't entertain scary thoughts this late at night!