<
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/28/world/europe/paris-pere-lachaise-cemetery-.html>
"PARIS — Dry leaves rustled under Benoît Gallot’s footsteps as he rambled his
way across the rugged terrain. Stopping by shrubs of laurel and elder, he
pulled aside their foliage to uncover a crumbling stone colonnade. A parakeet,
perched up in a nearby tree, squawked.
It looked like a scene deep in one of France’s luxuriant forests — but this was
inside one of the world’s most visited burial grounds, the Père-Lachaise
cemetery, nestled between traffic-laden avenues in eastern Paris.
The cemetery has long been known as the final resting place for celebrated
artists, including Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde and Édith Piaf. But in recent
years, it has also become a haven for the city’s flora and fauna. Foxes and
tawny owls are among the many animals calling it home.
“Nature’s taking back its rights,” said Mr. Gallot, the cemetery’s curator,
responsible for overseeing grounds maintenance and allocating burial plots, as
he continued his trek among tombstones engulfed by vines and weeds.
The greening of the necropolis stems from a decade-old plan to phase out
pesticides and turn the cemetery into one of Paris’s green lungs, as the dense
capital is redesigning its urban landscape to make it more climate-friendly in
the face of rising temperatures.
By encouraging wildlife in a place dedicated to death, these efforts have also
brought about a small revolution in the mores of French cemeteries, where
traces of nonhuman life have long been seen as disrespectful to the deceased."
Via
The Fixer January 18, 2023:
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/cancer-deaths-falling-us/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
