Paris: Week Five, Day Four

Wednesday, July 26

Today, we had class. Most of the students weren’t sure why we were still having class. After all, the exam scores were completed and there wasn’t really much else to learn. Personally, my brain was completely shut down.

My teacher decided to give us cards with questions on them in French. We had to answer them in French as well.

My favorite question: With who would you like to be stuck in an elevator for 24 hours? I explained that I had recently had a misunderstanding with a French friend and we weren’t speaking, so I thought it would be good to be forced into communication during such a situation. I was most surprised to hear one of my classmates respond to their question, “With who would you like to change places with for a day?” They responded that they would like to change places with me because I’m kind, friendly, pretty, and I remind them of their aunt. Not sure what that last part meant, but I take it all as a compliment!

After class, I decided to visit a pet cemetery that I learned about through online searches for cemeteries in Paris. I was looking for something unusual and I’d never visited a pet cemetery. It seemed like a fun thing to do. It probably was not the best idea to take this trip on a day when my knee was hurting so badly. I injured my knee at the worst time possible during my Paris stay and it definitely impeded my cemetery visits. The pet cemetery was, by far, the furthest away cemetery for me. All of this meant that I was in terrible pain by the end of the day.

The cemetery is called the Cimetiere des Chiens et Autres Animaux Domestiques. Having never visited a pet cemetery before, my only reference was the Stephen King novel, Pet Sematary. Not the best reference book!

https://stephenking.com/works/novel/pet-sematary.html

I don’t think this cemetery is actually in Paris. My directions said it was in Asnieres-sur-Seine, France. It took one hour of travel to get there. First, I took the metro, requiring a transfer, and then I walked for about 20-30 minutes to get to the cemetery. The area wasn’t exactly pedestrian friendly. There were sidewalks, of course, however, it was a high traffic area. I didn’t see a ton of people walking in this area and I felt VERY out of place. Once, a random guy on the street started saying things to me in French, but I really couldn’t understand him. I just continued to walk as if I didn’t hear him or didn’t know he was speaking to me. Maybe it was a little rude, but it was easier than having yet another awkward conversation to explain that I have no idea what he’s saying.

I saw some cool architecture during my journey.

I also passed through a couple of beautiful parks. My GPS directions took me through them, which cut down on my walking time. The first park, Square Voyer d’Argenson, was so nice. It was shady and cool. People were out enjoying nature. I could have stayed there for hours if I had the time. The second park, Parc Robinson, seemed to be for children to play in. It ran parallel to the pet cemetery.

My knee was in extreme pain and very swollen by the time I got to the cemetery. I pushed forward anyway. This cemetery has a unique history. You can learn more about it from my blog post (link will be added soon).

It cost about 2 Euros to enter the pet cemetery. The workers there were kind of odd, lacking in customer service, but I eventually managed to pay and enter the cemetery. They gave me a nice booklet that explains the cemetery. I’ll cover that more in my research video about the cemetery.

This was a small place with a ton of pet burials. I was surprised to see that the burial plots for the pets were pretty much the same as those used for human cremains. The extravagance of these burials showed how much people loved their pets. Some of the words left on these memorials were more kind and thoughtful than those I had seen for humans!

So many burials were squished into a small space. It was difficult to navigate the area or to take photos of individual plots. I did the best I could though. I stayed here for several hours, getting eaten by mosquitos, and trying to understand the layout of the pet cemetery.

I left around 5pm to return to civilization. My study abroad program, AIFS, was having a farewell dinner and I didn’t want to be late. In the end, I was late. My knee inhibited my ability to move as quickly as I wanted, especially over steps and cobblestones. Also, after being stood up several times by this program for some of the cultural activities, I wasn’t too excited to go to the dinner. I arrived about 10 minutes late. Everyone was seated. Several people didn’t show up, so there were only about 8 of us total.

Before dinner, we all filled out a questionnaire. It was basically a survey asking about our experience and requesting suggestions. I had a lot to say about the cultural events since my experience had been a little bit negative. Things like this often happen to me though, so I wasn’t extremely upset. Just annoyed. Not sure why the “universe” decides that I’m a good person to dump a bunch of b.s. on. I just tell myself that I’m level-headed and understanding, so it’s better me than someone who might make a scene.

For dinner, it was a limited menu. I ended up trying new things since none of it was food that I would normally order.

The first course was gazpacho. That actually so okay. It reminded me of a poor man’s snack I used to eat as a child: canned tomatoes and vinegar. The main course was a vegetarian meal of fried eggplant, potatoes, and salad. The salad was good. The eggplant didn’t have much flavor and the char on it was overpowering. Plus, the skin was very thick and chewy. For desert, I had an apple pie slice and ice cream. The apple pie was slightly overcooked, as you can see in the picture. It was extremely sweet, dry, and burnt. I didn’t enjoy it, so I didn’t finish it. The ice cream was good though. Ultimately, this meal kind of summed up my experience in France this year. It was mostly not great, but had a few high points.