Our trip to Paris (6) - Père Lachaise (3)

I didn't spend much time at the computer the past two weeks. Way too hot here in Holland. It's still too hot, but because it's already two weeks ago since my last post I thought it was about time to post again. This will be my last post with pics from our trip to Paris last month. I have some more pics from Père Lachaise I would like to share. Here and there I will add a little bit backgroundinformation and links to some more information.

The grave of Louis Visconti, a French (but born in Italy) architect and designer of Napoleon’s tomb at the Invalides and (parts of) the new Louvre.

The grave of Oscar Wilde.

Some idiots thought it was necessary to put some "nice" graffiti on the tombsculpture.

Those braindead morons obviously can't read.

Our trip to Paris (5) - Père Lachaise (2)

Here is part two of my serie of pictures taken at Père Lachaise during our trip to Paris. In my first post with pics from Père Lachaise I forgot to add the link to the website of the cemetry. On this very nice website you can take a virtual tour. On the map of the cemetry you'll find around 100 points from where you can have a 360 degree panoramic view. Recommended! For some more background information on the famous cemetry you could check here.

Besides the images of the "less" known (but often still impressive) graves there also will be some pics from graves from some more welll known people. In that case I will mention it briefly.

The grave from Chopin

From a different angle

And a black and white picture

The grave of the French composer Georges Bizet, best known for his opera Carmen.

And of course the grave of Jim Morrison, the singer of The Doors and the main reason for many young people to visit Père Lachaise. I saw lots of them who even were not born when Jim Morrison died in 1971.

Our trip to Paris (4) - Père Lachaise (1)

Here is part 4 of our pics from our trip to Paris last month. This will be part 1 from the pics that I took at Père Lachaise, the famous cemetry. I have a weak spot (from a photographers point of view) for graveyards and cemetries. In my humble opinion they are ideal places for black and white photography. Most of the time you'll find a good mix of black, white and grey colours which gives a good contrast which often gives good results when you shoot in black and white.

Père Lachaise is quite a big place. We took a break halfway, but we totally spend a little over 4 hours there and we still didn't see all the famous graves that we wanted to see. It's a gorgeous, quiet and peaceful place, with lots of green and nice paths. You absolutely don't have the idea that you are in the middle of the big city Paris. You hardly hear any traffic. When you walk around at Père Lachaise, only the size of the cemetry gives you the idea that you must be in a huge city.

But enough writing for now. Let's take a look at some of the pics. Later this week I will post part two, three and maybe four of the pics from Père Lachaise.

The subway exit/entrance of Père Lacahise

The grave of Edith Piaf the famous French singer

Our trip to Paris (3)

Here is part two with some of our pics we took at Versailles. It will only give you a little bit of an impression. It's simply too big to give you a complete view. Anyway here are some of the pics. Other pics we took at Versailles I might post later on an online webalbum. If I do so I will post the URL to the webalbum.

This is the famous mirror hall. Unfortunately most of it was under construction due to some restoration work.
And this is the hall with paintings of famous battles on both sides. I wrote about it in my former post with the first picture of that post of Noriko and my mother in law.
These are more detailed shots of some of those battles.
And finally a few more outside pictures.Next time I'm planning to post pictures from Père Lachaise the famous cemetry.

Our trip to Paris (2)

This time some pics from Versailles
In this hall were this picture was taken there were huge paintings on both sides of famous battles. Of course only those battles that were won by the French. There is not so much glory in the ones you've lost. You can see how huge these paintings are in comparison to Noriko and my mother in law.

This one was taken at the Grand Trianon, also belonging to the grounds of Versailles

Near the Grand Trianon you find this countryside farmerhouses which were chosen by and designed for Marie Antoinette the wife of Louis XVI. Both died in 1793 under the guillotine after the French Revolution started in 1789.

These places were very photogenic as you can see.

Maybe next time I'll post some more pics from the inside of the main palace

Our trip to Paris

We got back from Paris last Thursdaynight.

Due to some PC-troubles and my internetconnection I couldn't be online long enough to post earlier.

Anyway we had a lovely time with loads of good food, expensive drinks (not loads, because expensive), nice sightseeing , activities lots of pics and some good laughs.

I'm still sorting out pictures and start posingt them a.s.a.p.

The only disappointment was on our last night. We had manage to book tickets online for an open-air opera on a gorgeous location (Jardin du Luxembourg). The whole week we had excellent weather but on our last night, 5 minutes after the opera started, the rain was pissing down in huge quantities. When it didn't stopped after about 15, 20 minutes the opera was cancelled and moved to this last night, which was of no use for us, because we were leaving last Thursday. But I managed to get our money back the morning we left.

Here are a few pics to start with. There are more to follow the next coming days. These are pics from church Madeleine at night and on the daytime.