Moulin Rouge~ Missing Paris Day

When my sister first moved to Paris from New York,

they lived in a small apartment just half a block off the Cimitiere Montmartre
right around the corner from the Moulin Rouge.

I spent hours in the afternoons curled up 

at the tomb of Alexandre Dumas le fils

writing in my notebook

blissfully content at 

being in Paris for

the first time
and wondering if,
at the end of his life,
Dumas wished he could change anything. 

I love cemeteries especially in Paris
with their long alleyways and ornate tombs.
Each tomb is a work of art whether sweetly cared for
or left to grow cobwebs, plastic flowers darkened with dust and broken stained glass windows.

Something about wandering through them
reminds us of how little time we have
but not in a morbid way.
It puts things in perspective.

Is there anything you wish you could change from yesterday
that you could do differently today?
Remember it. Mark it. Change it.

(Photos copyright: Kirsten Steen)