This past week found me playing nurse, when both Georges and the Little Guy came down with a case of food poisoning after we ate at one of our favorite local restaurants on Monday night. They had shared their meal, which consisted of a starter of escargots, and a main course of one plate of charcuterie and fromage (cold cuts and cheese) and another plate of a huge vegetarian salad. Our friend who was dining with us had a simple plate of the same charcuterie but no cheese, and I had something entirely different, and neither of us was sick at all, so my guess is that it was either the snails or the cheese that was just "off" enough to make them both feel lousy the next day. Georges was much sicker than his son; he spent all of Tuesday sleeping and he NEVER misses work when he's sick, whereas his son spent the early part of the day reading in bed and taking a short nap, but then ate and played normally the rest of the day. But I'm grateful that it wasn't really the worst case of food poisoning I'd ever seen, because that can be pretty nasty stuff (been there, done that, don't ever wanna do it again).
So Tuesday was spent quietly at home, and Wednesday the same (I was pretty tired after Tuesday). By Thursday I was happy to get out and meet Linda for lunch near Père Lachaise, and afterward -- between rain showers -- we managed to take a short walk into the cemetery. There, I took a small bouquet to honor Georges' parents, and then we searched for the tomb of Oscar Wilde.
The reason for this is that his tomb had recently been restored, and a high glass barrier erected around it. Why? Because for SOME reason, there has been a tradition of fans putting on their reddest lipstick and KISSING the giant grave marker/statue. The statue was covered in old red/faded greasy lip prints as well as a fair amount of graffiti (how rude!) and the stone was actually deteriorating from all this attention from fans. (Linda has some great "before" photos here.) So, now the stone has been cleaned and restored (you can once again read Wilde's name and the inscription on the back). And the glass barrier isn't really as obtrusive as we thought it might be.
Having said that, while we were there, two girls appeared, lathered on a thick layer of red lipstick... and proceeded to kiss the GLASS. And they weren't the first, judging by the lip-prints that were already there. So now someone from the cemetery will come periodically and clean the glass -- which is certainly easier than cleaning the stone.
A few photos from the day:
One of the many cemetery cats, and his shadow.
Oscar Wilde's resting place, now nice and clean, with the glass barrier protecting it.
Lipstick prints on the glass leave shadows (but no damage) on the stone.
Fan #1 kissing the glass (photo taken with her permission).
And Fan #2 leaving her mark (also taken with her permission).
There is no end of interesting tomb designs. Some are quite simple and traditional, while others have very elaborate statues on top.
Scary, this one, n'est-ce pas?
