Paris: Week Five, Day Five

Thursday, July 27

Today, I skipped French class to pack my suitcase. I also needed to be near my laptop to check-in for my flight. I was glad I stayed home because I had issues checking in. Eventually, I had to give up on it. The website just wasn’t cooperating.

I got my bags packed up and planned my journey to leave Paris the next day. I had some anxiety about traversing all the steps required to get myself and my 50 lb suitcase to the airport, but that was a problem for future me. My teacher texted my certificate to me in WhatsApp. I passed the course with an A 2.1 level in French. It’s good, but not great. I was hoping to be closer to B1, but after the experience, I was just glad to have passed at all.

After class, I decided to visit another cemetery. Even though my knee was in so much pain at this point, I still couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get in at least one or two more cemetery visits. I had taken a break over the previous weekend to rest my knee, but it really didn’t help and I felt like that was such wasted time. At this point, I decided it was all or nothing. I can rest my knee when I get home.

Anyway, today I went to the Batignolles Cemetery. This was a cemetery like no other I had visited in Paris up to this point. Really, it was like 3 different cemeteries squished together into one. It began with more modern headstones in a traditional French burial space. Slowly, it transitioned into a cemetery in a construction site. Finally, it turned into a cemetery more resembling an older museum space. Not really sure how to describe it. Anyway, you can check it out on my Youtube video: Batignolles Cemetery (link coming soon).

It rained the whole time I was there. Visiting a cemetery in the rain is one of my new favorite things. The lighting is different and the wet headstones look amazing. It doesn’t make for amazing photographs though. I had to do some editing to make the details visible. Here are some images from my visit.

After this cemetery, I headed home. The rain had soaked my shoes and my knee was in a LOT of pain. Once home, I finished packing, checked on my flight again, and then went to bed. Tomorrow, I head home!