A very spiritual day

 Today was a first for both Aaron and myself. We accompanied Allison to a Catholic Mass. It was at her old church where she sang when she lived in Paris and also, it was on Aaron's list of things to do before leaving, so we went. Saint-Eustache. It has the largest pipe organ in all of France. Wow! I understood about half of the sermon when they provided a piece of paper to read along with, but I was totally in the dark when trying to read the songs. Not only were they in latin, but the notes weren't the notes that I'm accustomed to, so it felt like 2 languages that were new. Also, after one of the prayers, you're supposed to turn to someone, shake their hands, and say "piece de Christ" but for some reason, I heard "petit lapin" which I knew couldn't be right, but I went ahead and said it really fast and under my breath.

 After church, we went to Pere Lachaisse, another thing I've never done before. It's a cemetery which is also Paris' largest park. Wait what?! Is it a park or a cemetery? Apparently, it's both. I even saw some people making out in there and was a little weirded out. Graveyards are no place to be getting fresh.

 It's home to many famous people and we managed to find a few of them. Like Sarah Bernhardt...Allison had to fill me in on this one, but that's ok.

 Oscar Wilde; "True friends stab you in the front." Oh so true. Allison was sad to see this grave because there used to be lipstick kisses all over it. In 2011, they installed a piece of glass around his grave because he's now a historical monument.

 Edith Piaf, the songstress of "La Vie En Rose". What a sad life she lived out in the end. I love her voice and of course, I loved her song because it was out first dance song.

Jim Morrison. This was another one where you can't really get close to it, and I was sad to see that people had written on other peoples' graves nearby to pay tribute to Jim. 

Chopin. I respect him for what he did for music, but man did I hate him when I was learning that damned Waltz in A Minor. Really, Chopin?!

 I found the bat cave! We played a game in the cemetery. Whoever could find the most recent grave would win. Allison thought she had won when she found a plaque. It was on top of astro turf...this guy must've been buried last week. We decided that if no one found an engraved grave before we left, she'd be the ultimate winner. Alas, Aaron found one. So I had to find one at this point so that I could stay in the running. Lucky for me, I spotted one. Since no one could win this game, we gave out awards for different things; I won best grave for the "bat cave" and Allison won "deepest grave" for finding a seemingly boring crypt with small windows and discovering that it was many feet deep....so creepy!

After Pere Lachaisse, we returned to the house, played a game of Hanabi, and then Allison was off back to Lyon. I went out for swing dancing with a live band and though the swing dancing community continues to somewhat shun me out, it's still fun. I rode Velib back home and got caught in the rain, so I stopped by a crappy looking "Coney Island Hot Dog place, got a meal "pour emporter", and talked with the shop owners in french. They were so impressed with me that they gave me a free cookie....how nice. And to make it even better, the meal was actually really good.