Lachaise Cemetery is located in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, within Petite Paris.
The Paris area that people usually refer to actually includes several provinces around Paris, such as the 94 provinces where Cheng Kesong once lived, which belongs to the category of "Greater Paris". But the real Paris city, refers only to little Paris.
So Lachaise Cemetery is actually a cemetery located in the city.
From the Porte de Versailles where Cheng Kesong lives now to the Lachaise Cemetery, the journey is not too close. It takes two subway trips to get to the Philip II station that he agreed with his classmates.
Cheng Kesong was actually looking forward to this trip.
He had visited most of the famous sights in Paris in the summer when he first arrived in Paris, but he had never been to those famous cemeteries. In his perception, the cemetery is used to cherish the memory of the deceased, and it has nothing to do with the word "tour". But it is said that there are many famous people buried in Lachaise Cemetery, such as Chopin, such as Molière...
…like Oscar Wilde.
"Where have you been?"
Suddenly I received a message from Hugo on my phone.
"I'm transferring to Line 2, and there are three stops left."
"You're still on time." The other party's message was delivered again.
It was followed by another: "Julia and Lea will meet first at their shared transfer station, Bruno just told me he overslept and Valentine is always late. They let us in first, We'll meet again at the entrance of the cemetery in the afternoon."
The French are just so casual, it's always hard for these kids to have the concept of being "on time" if it's not for an important formal meeting.
Cheng Kesong smiled nonchalantly and replied to the message.
"Okay, see you at the exit."
"no problem."
When Cheng Kesong came out of the subway station, Hugo was snuffing out the cigarette in his hand.
"Good morning!"
He stepped forward with a smile, gave Cheng Kesong a face-to-face salute, and took out a kraft paper folder from his bag.
"Well, the "Phantom of the Opera" I said yesterday has a script book."
Cheng Kesong took the folder and saw a stack of printed lines inside, neatly bound, with a CD inserted in the bottom folder with the cover of "The Phantom of the Opera" on it.
"I thought you would give me the electronic version of the lines." Cheng Kesong said.
Hugo shrugged and said indifferently, "It's easier for you to print it out and read it."
Cheng Kesong smiled and thanked him.
Hugo casually took his shoulder: "Let's go, let's go to the cemetery first."
The two walked side by side to the main entrance of the cemetery. Cheng Ke Song looked at the straight road leading to the garden, and was suddenly stunned.
"Here... It's very different from what I imagined." He was really shocked.
Hugo was surprised: "What?"
"I thought the cemetery would always be a little gloomy, with tombstones everywhere, neatly arranged... but here it is..."
Cheng Kesong searched for adjectives in his mind, but to no avail, he only thought of one: "...so green!"
The green area in the Lachaise Cemetery is very large, and there is a green grass and green trees as far as the eye can see. If it weren't for the tombstones hidden under the greenery, Cheng Kesong would even mistake it for a park.
Hugo smiled.
"Are you entering the cemetery for the first time?"
Cheng Ke Song nodded.
"There are three relatively large cemeteries in Paris, and there is one on Montparnasse, but because they are all flat and there are no steps, we chose to come here." Hugo said, "There is another one in Montmartre. Heights, near the Sacred Heart Church where Valentine and Lea went on Monday."
"This is the largest of the three cemeteries in downtown Paris, but in fact, the environment of the three cemeteries is not bad."
Hugo took Cheng Kesong to a fork in the road and walked up the winding low stairs.
There is a tombstone on the edge of the steps. The position and angle are not the same as those neatly listed on the roadside. It seems to be placed here at random. The base of the tombstone is a cuboid granite, on which is a bronze sculpture of a middle-aged man lying on his back. The side of the base of the tombstone is engraved with the name and epitaph of the dormant.
"François Philippe Faure?"
Cheng Kesong read according to the name on the tombstone.
"A certain French president."
After Hugo explained, he smiled again: "We have too many presidents, and I don't even remember who he was."
Cheng Ke Song also laughed.
"I never thought that tombstones could be made like this. The tombstones in my impression are always square and serious."
"Then you have to take a good stroll here. Each of those famous tombstones is very unique."
After Hugo finished speaking, he pretended to be serious and raised his face again, and said righteously: "But our theme is stairs. You can't just look at the tombstone, you know?"
Cheng Kesong nodded: "The steps here are very good. It connects the world of life and death. We shuttle between the sleepers. They are so quiet, but everyone has a story."
"Actually, the steps here also have a kind of pilgrimage." Hugo said suddenly.
"How to explain?" Cheng Ke Song was curious.
Hugo looked down at the route map that he received for free from the entrance of the cemetery, looked up and smiled: "Follow me."
He took Cheng Kesong to walk on the tree-lined path for a while, and then walked inward along the slightly crowded road between the tombstones. Only then did he see a place full of flowers in the corner of several tombstones. stone platform.
"This is the tomb of Jim Morrison, a very famous American rock singer." Hugo said, "There are many American tourists who come here to pay their respects, and it is said that there have been crowds smoking marijuana in front of his tombstone before. 'Pilgrim', when his tombstone was covered in graffiti."
The two walked up the steps of the cemetery and came to a low tombstone again.
Not only are flowers placed on this tombstone, but many people have thrown their subway tickets here.
"Mano Thoreau. French singer."
Cheng Kesong looked at the subway tickets that were almost piled with tombstones, and suddenly felt that the people who were sleeping here didn't actually leave. They communicated with the world until their death, in a silent but tacit way, affecting their admirers.
Of course, this isn't really a big deal.
It wasn't until the two of them came to a tombstone full of lip prints that Cheng Kesong knew why Hugo would say that the steps of Lachaise Cemetery had the meaning of "pilgrimage".
"This is... Wilde's tomb?" Cheng Ke Song's eyes widened.
I saw that the marble tombstone, which was supposed to be white and flawless, was densely covered with countless lip prints, as well as the classic lines in Wilde's works written with lipstick, and the wishes of the funeral.
"We are in a ditch, but there are always people looking up at the stars."
Hugo read Wilde's most representative sentence in a poetic tone.
"Behind every beautiful thing that ever existed, there was something tragic." (Note)
Cheng Kesong added a sentence in English.
"You also like his story?" Hugo's eyes suddenly burst into a surprise light, echoing the studs on his brows.
Cheng Kesong shook his head with a smile, and said ashamedly: "I have only read "The Portrait of Dorian Gray", and I have a little understanding of his life, but I am far from being an admirer of him."
"Reading a classic is enough." Hugo laughed.
"He always tells tragedies in a very calm tone, which makes people feel very sad but can't vent. But maybe that's why his stories are so gripping."
After saying such an overly literary remark, Hugo circled Wilde's tombstone, and his smile became a little teasing.
"These girls were kissing passionately, but Wilde was gay."
Cheng Kesong nodded: "I know. He was imprisoned for this, and that case became the most cited classic case in the gay rights movement... "
Hugo turned his head slightly and looked at Cheng Ke Song with a very focused gaze. In the mottled tree shadows covered by the greenery, it seemed a little hot.
Cheng Ke Song noticed Hugo's gaze, and his heart suddenly trembled.
"In a sense, Wilde has actually become a cultural icon for us... LGBT people."
Hugo raised his head, looked at the wing carved on the tombstone, and said casually.
Cheng Kesong could almost hear his own heartbeat that suddenly amplified.
For the first time, there was an overly lengthy silence between the two, but it seemed that something stirred up a little ripple in this silence and slowly spread. The ripples touched the bodies of the two lightly, and returned to more finer ripples, turning back and forth between the two, endlessly.
Cheng Ke Song felt that maybe, maybe... maybe he should say something.
say what
Say you're gay too
Is it too deliberate...
A burst of cell phone ringing interrupted his hesitation.
Hugo took the phone out of his pocket, glanced at it, and said with a smile: "Julia and Leia arrived, and happened to meet Valentine, and they were walking to Alan Carden's tombstone... Let's go there too. Bar."
His bright smile suddenly broke the somewhat indescribable atmosphere between the two just now and returned to the relaxed and comfortable it had always been.
Cheng Ke Song swallowed the words that just came to his mouth.
The two walked side by side on the bluestone-paved steps of the cemetery, and crossed several forks along the shade of the trees.
"Alan Kadian, who is it?" Cheng Kesong asked.
"He was the founder of the psychic theory," Hugo said. "I can probably guess that Julia asked to go to his tombstone. Julia has always been interested in these mysteries."
Cheng Kesong: "You know a lot, these people... I have never heard of them."
Hugo smiled and said, "Worship me?"
Cheng Ke Song looked at the big boy's vivid expression and couldn't help laughing: "Well, I adore you."
Hugo seemed happy, smiling all the way.
Alan Carden's tombstone is very different.
Several rough-cut boulders were built into a small pavilion like a shrine. In the pavilion stood a bust of Alan Kadean. His introduction was written in red on the stone platform below the bust.
On the outer edge of the boulder at the top of the shrine, his epitaph is deeply carved.
"Birth, death, rebirth, continuous progress, this is Dharma."
It has some philosophical implications.
Julia buried her head and dug out her sketchbook from her schoolbag, turned the book to a certain page with excitement, and handed it to Hugo.
"What? Are you going to start telling supernatural stories again?" Hugo asked.
Julia denied: "No, I actually liked that story at the Opera House yesterday, but I wanted to add a new idea."
Hugo saw that a ladder of paradoxical spaces was drawn on Julia's notebook, which was Escher's famous "infinite ladder" diagram.
"The opera artist lost his wife and was devastated, so he thought of spiritism." Julia explained her idea, "He came to Alain Carden's tombstone and hoped that the spiritism The founders of it were able to show a path for themselves."
"Alain Cardin directed the opera artist to find an 'endless staircase' through which he could see his wife again."
"So the opera artist started looking around the world for such a ladder. Of course, he found nothing, because all ladders have an end."
Hugo asked: "It's a good idea, but how do you end it? All the ladders will end—"
"Reflection!" Julia slapped Hugo on the shoulder. "This opera artist came to the Seine on a full moon night, and saw the reflection of the steps under the steps into the water! He came from this side, Go over there and follow the reflection back to the day before his wife's accident! Great story isn't it?"
"But the reflection..."
"I love this story!"
Cheng Kesong said with a smile: "I like this story, death, rebirth, continuous progress... It is indeed more eye-catching."
Hugo raised his eyebrows and looked at Cheng Kesong.
Cheng Kesong felt a little guilty: "You... don't like it?"
"No, I like it very much." Hugo looked at Cheng Kesong with softness in his eyes.
Julia cheered, grabbed Leia's arm beside her, and said excitedly, "Look, I said, this story will be popular!"
Leia rolled her eyes helplessly.
"Come on, we need some sketches, not only the steps, but the tombstone of this Alain Cardin and the figurative movement of the opera artist praying at his tomb... Valentin, this Now it's your turn to model! Boys, let's get to work!"
Hugo made the final call.
The author has something to say:
Note: From "The Picture of Dorian Gray" BY Oscar Wilde
The Lachaise Cemetery is too big, I can't remember the location of the tombstones, so let's assume they are on the way