Letter from Paris 1 May

May Day in Paris!

I left the apartment and made my way to Père-Lachaise arriving there a little after 10am. I hoped to spend the entire day and had arranged to meet with Marie Beleyme and Carolyn Campbell at the cemetery. Carolyn is working on researching her new guide map as well as putting together information for a possible mobile phone app for the cemetery and I was looking for clarification on my guide to the artwork in the cemetery.

So,  the three of us spent the better part of the afternoon in search of specific gravesites -- such things always go faster when there's a team involved.

And of course, with Marie's help Carolyn and I were able to track down quite a few of those elusive graves.

l-r: local guide Thierry Le Roi, Carolyn, Marie and some doofus with a camera

The cemetery was packed with visitors and at one point we crossed paths we local cemetery guide Thierry Le Roi who was leading a group of about 30 people. (He and Marie and Carolyn are good friends.)

About 4pm Susie texted saying she planned to join us for an aperitif but was caught in a protest demonstration at Gare d'Austerlitz so she was unable to get on line 5. She walked over to our old neighborhood to try line 7 but Place d'Italie was also closed because of the demonstrations. She turned back to our present neighborhood and got on line 6 at Nationale to Nation and line 2 to Père-Lachaise. We learned later that the Austerlitz demonstration turned ugly with lots of stone throwing at the police and they responding in turn with tear gas.

The four of us met at Rond-Point Casimir Perier in the cemetery and headed for the exit. We soon said adieu to Carolyn. Marie, Susie and I then walked to the nearby brassiere l'Amis Justin for an aperitif. After a couple of hours of lively conversation the three of us headed toward line 2 at Philippe Auguste but Marie was going in the direction of Porte Dauphine while we were heading toward Nation.

A good day celebrating life in the city of death.

That evening we made our way back to the 13th and the Asian quartier for dinner. This time we stopped at a Laotian restaurant, Lao Thai, 128 rue de Avenue Tolbiac, where we had another in a long line of delicious meals -- the beef in the first dish was so tender it seemed to melt in our mouths and the pork brochettes with curry sauce were equally tasty. And for dessert Susie had a coconut ice cream which she polished off with no help from me while I had a concoction of green vermicelli, pieces of something red and bubble bits in a luscious coconut cream sauce.

It was short pair of Metro rides back home and a little Avèze before bed.