It's like walking from Demeter's green hills into the cooler depths of...not Hades...but maybe a middle ground...but not purgatory either:)

I'm talking about the Columbarium at Pere Lachaise, which is also connected to the beautifully domed crematorium. Your sense of sight and smell and general perception shifts. When you descend into its subterranean level, everything is hazy at first, but then you notice it's cooler down here and darker and in a strange way, musty. I doubt it's the smell of ashes...I guess it's the smell of many, lived through lives co-mingling with the thoughts of their loved ones. There are placards and engravings for "my little daughter" or "my beloved."

I've made some French friends here with knowledge of the cemetary, and they all say I must come during All Saint's Day. It's said the entire Columbarium is coated, covered with a bedding of flowers...and there's a queue to enter Pere Lachaise.

Imagine that...a city of the living and dead.