Yesterday was All Saints, so on Saturday I took a walk in Gonards cemetary, one of the largest in the country with about 12 000 tombs, and a few celebrities, amongst which Edith Wharton. I'll have to go back, I didn't find her tomb. Good thing I went on Saturday, because Sunday we had our first real autumn storm 2009.
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Pour la Toussaint, samedi je me suis promenée dans le cimetière des Gonards (pas de jeux de mots svp !) C'est l'un des plus vastes du pays, avec environ 12 000 tombes et quelques célébrités, dont Edith Wharton, que je n'ai pas trouvées. Il faudra donc que j'y retourne...
Appropriately somber in late autumn colors. I really like how you got - what to call it? - the swell of mortality in the second picture.
ReplyDeleteGreat All Saints Day cemetary photos! We rang a handbell in church today for every member who died in this past year.
ReplyDeleteC'est tres joli avec ces couleurs d'automne particulierement celle du haut. les feuilles tombees couvrent les tombes.
ReplyDeleteYou have to embiggen these pictures to get the full effect. They are excellent...I actually like cemeteries.
ReplyDeleteDo you know why they put fences around cemeteries? Too many people are dying to get in!
Sorry. I know it's old and bad, but couldn't resist.
But, tell me, do you usually haunt a cemetery on All Saints Day?
Have a great week!
Gorgeous colours! Not a bad place to end up.
ReplyDeleteA great idea for All Saints Day. I love to see your grand old cemeteries.
ReplyDeleteI spent hours roaming the old one in Tiberias with the basalt tombstones. Will show you the pics soon.
Ciel: Tapirgal and I just read Wharton's Age of Innocence, which is about NYC not France. She was a remarkable French patriot and experienced first hand the horrors of WW1. and helped mainly Belgian refugees. People don't realize how horrible and how many deaths occurred during that war. It is now too long ago.
ReplyDeleteI don't tie cemetary tombs to Halloween which we just celebrated BUT I do enjoy walking amoung the gravestones to see the beautiful work on some of them! I also find many benches at cemetaries.
ReplyDeleteYour photos of the tombs are really special -- such beautiful art work.
Great shots. You captured them so well. The second shot is amazing for the sheer amount of tombs.
ReplyDeleteSharon
Les cimetières offrent en tout temps une atmosphère très particulière et c'est surtout le cas à ce moment de l'année où les couleurs des arbres contrastes superbement avec le côté plus lugubre des lieux.
ReplyDeleteTrès belles photos (Tu me donnes le goût d'y retourner aussi :-)
Cet cimetière est très éminente et tu as une beau idée pour la date de aujourd'hui.
ReplyDeleteLéia
Wow, that is one huge cemetary. 12,00 tombs. I like to walk among the headstones and read them. beautiful pictures. MB
ReplyDeleteJ'en suis sur il y a des gens qui appellent cette cimetière d'un autre nom, comme Gonard rime avec un autre mot qui finit par –ard. ;-)
ReplyDeleteJ'espère que tu trouveras Mme Wharton. J'aime bien ses livres.
@ Halcyon : j'avais prévenu ! Pas de jeux de mots ! ;-)
ReplyDeleteAwesome colours! Love the yellow leaves on the graves.
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful! I'll trade you - I'll visit France and you come to the PNW for a while. Just so long as we connect at some point! :)
ReplyDeleteLife is good with Little Miss. I'm back at work this week for the first time - part time this week and full time starting next week. So that's hard, but she's home with her daddy, so I'm not too worried.
@ Jacob: no I don't! It was for VDP purposes only. My family's tombs are far away and I don't feel the need to go. I have them all in my heart.
ReplyDeleteThis cemetery looks very well kept. I enjoy reading tombstones that reveal a little bit about the persons whose graves they mark.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful old cemetary. Great shots, both.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful
ReplyDeleteI probably did something wrong and my comment didn't show up... I was asking if this is a normal cemetery (not a monumental one) and wishing you luck with the Edith Wharton quest!
ReplyDelete@ VP: "monumental"?
ReplyDelete