Am staying at a very small apartment with a ladder like entrance and a double bolted door behind a large heavy street door with electronic combination code access. Not sure if all this security is normal or because of the crime in the area but it seems very secure.
Two days ago I went to the Musee de Orsay, was amazed at the art on display. You walk along and there is 5 or so Gaugains, then 5 or so Van Goghs followed my Manets Olympia and Monets pond lillies, Rodin sculptures, Degas, Edward Munch etc etc. You sort of get dizzy with all the great work you see.
Yesterday went to Pere Lachaise the most famous cemetary in the world. Shot a bunch of film on things I found interesting including the the people tourists in the graveyard. I also did a bit of grave visiting, Chopin, Gaulthier, Modigliani and Morrison. Jim Morrisons grave was a bit of a nightmare complete with angry staff and security. They had Morrisons grave surrounded by a metal fence and it was the number one draw, old, young and those in between crowded around the little opening to his grave trying to see what they could see. There were two photos on the grave along with burning candles, a near by tree had graffitti on it that the staff was trying to clean off, when I and another guy (young American) tried to take photos of the cleaning, one older male staff member got angry and started yelling NO PHOTOS, NO PHOTOS, he even got into a pushing match with the other guy, yelling at him in French. I ended up backing off and he left me alone but I got most of my photos anyway as I was using a 21mm lens and got some of the cleaning in the shots on the edge of the frame, they did not realize they were in the photograph.
It was an exhausting day of about 9 hours in the cemtary shooting from 8am till about 5pm followed by a 3 metro line ride home and 8 block walk back to the apartment. The shower on returning felt wonderful and I was a bit dehydrated even thou I drank 2 bottles of water at the cemetary. I had some more water a bit of cheese and was off to bed. Am glad I saw what I saw there but do not think I will go back this trip to much to do, to many places to go.
Stairs into my Paris apartment
