NOSTALGIA t was a good day to go see my heroes. Splinters of the sun were lighting my path, Frenchmen were throwing away come-hither looks, my feet were tapping to an invisible harp. Paris was coming together like a well-directed scene. too bad all my heroes had gone underground. IWriters over the last two centuries have hungered for Paris like loners hunger for love. they came looking for inspiration and freedom; they left with Ulysses and A Moveable Feast. this is the city where they failed and succeeded, lost their hearts and found a few words. And though there’s nothing more I’d like than to bump into them, à la Midnight in Paris, I have to contend myself with walking past their graves, head bent in awe. GHOSTS OF WRITERS PAST My first stop was Père-Lachaise Cemetery, the most Most come here to visit rock god Jim Morrison, but Above: A statue famous resting place in the world with the likes of I was interested in the man who was the life and of a woman with a headscarf placing a Chopin, Modigliani and Édith Piaf within. the site soul of literary parties in the late 19th century— was so sprawling, it could easily be mistaken for a laurel wreath around Oscar Wilde. Hounded by a Victorian government the head of the park. Ivory-coloured headstones were shaded with over his choices in love, Oscar Wilde died poor and deceased inside Père chestnut trees, creating a gorgeous foil of silver bereft. History, though, has been kinder to him. Lachaise Cemetery. and gold. While meandering through, I noticed the When I’d visited, his angel tomb was covered in red Below: Thousands distinct lack of space, and discovered later that and pink kisses. the French have since cleaned it of tourists flock more than a million were buried in its 108 acres. to Paris’s largest up and installed a barrier of glass. Undeterred, fans cemetery, Père Père-Lachaise was certainly popular among the have covered the glass in lipstick marks, heart signs Lachaise, to “meet” departed. As Paris expert David Downie says, and graffiti today.t hey believe that a man capable their dear-departed “[It’s] the burial place of all of France’s great and of crimes of passion (a crime at least according to idols, admire the good.” Albeit, thrown in with some very bad boys. site’s architecture those times) deserves their affection. I believe his and stroll in its sharp wit deserved mine. calm environs. In the maudlin landscape of Père-Lachaise, French dinodia photos dinodia photos greats like Balzac, La Fontaine, and Molière lie. But I made my way to another one—Marcel Proust, a man who’s more talked about than actually read. Six feet In all fairness, In Search of Lost Time isn’t easy to finish, neither is his crypt easy to find. I had taken a underPARIS couple of wrong turns before I reached his ebony- A tour of cemeteries might seem like a strange activity to undertake while on a holiday. But in the City of Lights, paying homage to some of the greatest luminaries of the world is as common as visiting the Louvre or gawking at the Eiffel Tower. text EKTA MOHTA Rue de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève leads to the Panthéon where some of France’s most celebrated citizens are buried. The street is famous in its own right as having been the haunt of many legendary authors and for prominently featuring in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. 150•JetWings•February 2013 JetWings•February 2013•151 Nostalgia This is the city where they failed divided more people than football clubs. they were QUICK FACTS and succeeded, lost their hearts never honoured by the Nobel when they both and found a few words. should have been. their graves didn’t receive many GETTING THERE visitors which they both should have as well. Jet Airways has daily, direct flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Brussels and daily, direct flights from Delhi to Milan. You can get connecting Nevertheless, with Victor Hugo and Alexandre Pausing by the remains of Sartre and Baudelaire flights to Paris from our codeshare partner Brussels Airlines. Dumas interred within, I had to experience it (men I’d never read) and Samuel Beckett (Waiting firsthand. Dumas was buried in his birthplace but for Godot had left me stunned), I finally made my ACCOMMODATION moved to the Panthéon in his bicentennial year. He way out. the trees were shedding their colour, the Le 55 Montparnasse (www.55montparnasse.com) and 9 Hotel shared a chamber with Victor Hugo, his on-again, sun bathing the landscape in honey. Melancholy (www.le9hotel.com) offer wonderful three-star accommodation for those off-again friend and fellow Romantic and with Émile and silence, love and longing mingled in the air. on a budget. Zola, the acclaimed French naturalist. I couldn’t On a regular day, if Paris could offer such beautiful help feeling that I was in the company of a different elegance to the dead, imagine what it must do for TRAVEL TIPS set of three musketeers—men who weren’t brave the living. in body, but in soul. they pushed the thinking of Père-Lachaise Cemetery their generation by pushing their own minds to 16 Rue du Repos, 75020 Paris Above: Tourists coloured grave marker—as simple as his genius was its highest ability. they wrote without fear, spoke Closest Metro: Philippe Auguste, Line 2 gather around dazzling. this was a man who created a storm in a without favour. this tiny room suddenly felt giant timings: Approximatelty 7:30 am to 6 pm Foucault’s dinodia photos dinodia photos Admission: Free Pendulum inside madeleine-soaked teacup. But all that remembered thanks to its literary Goliaths. the National Hall him today were a few dried flowers and a bright Website: www.père-lachaise.com of Fame in the summer day. Maybe someday when I’m looking at CEMETERY OF FORGOTTEN BOOKS Panthéon. dying tulips, in true Proust style, I’ll recall this exact My last stop for the day was a gravesite nestled the Panthéon Right: Honorary Place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris graves for Victor moment when I paid my respects to one of the few in the 14th arrondissement. Seen from above, the Hugo, Émile Zola authors who changed my life. Montparnasse Cemetery looks like a Monopoly Closest Metro: Cardinal Lemoine, Line 10 and Alexandre board with neat boulevards and house-like graves. timings: Daily 10 am to 6 pm, although the last entrance is Dumas inside 45 minutes before closing. a crypt in the TALES FROM THE CRYPT Seen from below, it looks like a smaller and Panthéon. Warm from the day’s sun, I headed towards the Left eccentric brother of Père-Lachaise. the statues on Admission: €7 for adults, €4.50 for 18-25, free for 17 and under. Bank, to the cool insides of Paris’s Panthéon. As a the tombs vary from a fully dressed couple in bed to Website: www.pantheonparis.com building, it’s an imposing structure with wingspan a mummified man, from evil cats to jaunty centaurs, domes and tall Corinthian columns. the massiveness from boys with missing arms to angels with missing Montparnasse Cemetery was hard to take in even as I was standing there. togs. But the authors I really wanted to see were 3 Boulevard edgar Quinet, 75014 Paris everywhere I’d look, a vivid biblical painting or the ones with the least fanfare—Julio Cortázar and Closest Metro: Raspail, Line 4 and 6 architectural flourish would stare back. Straight up Carlos Fuentes. timings: Approximatelty 8 am to 6 pm ahead was a fierce Marianne, the national symbol, Admission: Free with a sword and the French motto, ‘Live free or Marquez had once remarked that “Caribbean reality die’. It shouldn’t be surprising then that two of resembles the wildest imagination.” Perhaps it’s this FOR MORE INFORmatION the greatest thinkers, Voltaire and Rousseau, were magical truth that Latin American writers carry with Above: The Fuentes family grave—Carlos Fuentes’s two Log on to en.parisinfo.com / www.parismetro.com entombed here. However, as a burial place I feel it themselves wherever they go. Argentinean Cortázar children Carlos and Natasha preceded his own death in May 2012. He is survived by his wife Sylvia. suffers from too much seriousness. the cemeteries and Mexican Fuentes had similar journeys in many Top: Many of France’s (and the world’s) best thinkers are of Paris had luminescence and crisp air. In contrast, ways. they wrote passionately about their homeland buried in Montparnasse, making the cemetery, like Père the crypt here felt as confined as a coffin. while sitting in cafes half a world away. their works Lachaise, a popular tourist attraction. 152•JetWings•February 2013 JetWings•February 2013•153.