I have already made a number of posts about Paris cemeteries, the larger ones like Père Lachaise, Montparnasse, Montmartre, but also some of the smaller ones like Batignolles, Calvaire, Charonne and Picpus. Today we will visit another one, Passy.
The Passy Cemetery neighbours Trocadéro, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. It’s not one of the bigger ones in Paris, but it has some fine funerary sculptures and tombs and it’s the resting place for some interesting personalities. (During my recent visit the weather was a mix of rain, clouds and small sun glimpses – I had some problems to take decent photos.)
Among the tombs you can find those of painters like Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot; composers like Claude Debussy, Gabriel Faure; writers like Tristan Bernard, Jean Giraudoux, Maurice Genevoix, Lucie Faure, Octave Mirbeau; fashion designers like Jean Patou; statesmen like Georges Mandel, Edgar Faure; industrialists like Marcel Renault, Francis Bouygues, Marcel Dassault; actors like Fernandel (“Don Camillo”), Pearl White... Other tombs are those of Leila Pahlavi (daughter of the last shah of Iran – see all the flowers), Emmanuel de las Cases (“secretary” to Napoleon at St. Helena) and Bao Dai (last emperor of Vietnam).
The place has a concentration of tombs of aviation pioneers: Henry Farman (the first person to fly 1 km), Dieudonné Costes and Maurice Bellonte (both with several long distance records and the first to fly westbound Paris – New York in 1930). You can also find the grave of the chief stewardess on the Concorde that crashed after takeoff at the Charles de Gaulle airport in 2000, Huguette le Gouadec.
The most astonishing monument is probably the mausoleum of Marie Bashkirtseff, a painter and sculptor, born in Ukraine and who died young, by tuberculosis, at the age of 25 in 1884. She has also become famous for her very complete diary and for letters she exchanged with important personalities, e.g. Guy de Maupassant. A lot of what she produced was destroyed during WW II bombings, but you can see some of her paintings here – exhibited in some of the most illustrious museums worldwide - including her self-portrait. As you can see below, her monument contains actually a full sized studio and one of her last paintings can be seen on the wall (she is buried downstairs). I would recommend that you try to learn something more about her, if you don't already know her!
The Passy Cemetery neighbours Trocadéro, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. It’s not one of the bigger ones in Paris, but it has some fine funerary sculptures and tombs and it’s the resting place for some interesting personalities. (During my recent visit the weather was a mix of rain, clouds and small sun glimpses – I had some problems to take decent photos.)
Among the tombs you can find those of painters like Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot; composers like Claude Debussy, Gabriel Faure; writers like Tristan Bernard, Jean Giraudoux, Maurice Genevoix, Lucie Faure, Octave Mirbeau; fashion designers like Jean Patou; statesmen like Georges Mandel, Edgar Faure; industrialists like Marcel Renault, Francis Bouygues, Marcel Dassault; actors like Fernandel (“Don Camillo”), Pearl White... Other tombs are those of Leila Pahlavi (daughter of the last shah of Iran – see all the flowers), Emmanuel de las Cases (“secretary” to Napoleon at St. Helena) and Bao Dai (last emperor of Vietnam).The place has a concentration of tombs of aviation pioneers: Henry Farman (the first person to fly 1 km), Dieudonné Costes and Maurice Bellonte (both with several long distance records and the first to fly westbound Paris – New York in 1930). You can also find the grave of the chief stewardess on the Concorde that crashed after takeoff at the Charles de Gaulle airport in 2000, Huguette le Gouadec.
The most astonishing monument is probably the mausoleum of Marie Bashkirtseff, a painter and sculptor, born in Ukraine and who died young, by tuberculosis, at the age of 25 in 1884. She has also become famous for her very complete diary and for letters she exchanged with important personalities, e.g. Guy de Maupassant. A lot of what she produced was destroyed during WW II bombings, but you can see some of her paintings here – exhibited in some of the most illustrious museums worldwide - including her self-portrait. As you can see below, her monument contains actually a full sized studio and one of her last paintings can be seen on the wall (she is buried downstairs). I would recommend that you try to learn something more about her, if you don't already know her! You can find some of these pictures on my photo-blog.
I expect to be back with a new post on Friday.
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