Oscar Wilde

I have dipped into my archive for today's entry with the justification that the photo was at least taken in May - that is May 2018, which was the last time my wife and I visited Paris. I first went to Paris in August 1968, a few months after "les evenements" of the student riots in May of that year. Paris, as ever, was empty that August as all the Parisians had gone off on their summer holidays but the atmosphere was still intoxicating and I have loved the city - its ambience, its space, its buildings, its insouciance - ever since. However, in all the times I have visited Paris it was not until this last time that I made it to the Pere-Lachaise cemetery where Oscar Wilde is buried along with many other giants of the arts and music world including Chopin, Moliere, Edith Piaf, Gilbert Becaud, Jim Morrison. Oscar Wilde went to France after his release from gaol in 1897 following his disastrous decision to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel that led to his own arrest and conviction. He died in Paris of meningitis in 1900  aged 46. He was originally buried outside Paris. His remains were disinterred in 1909 and transferred to Pere-Lachaise. The tomb was designed by Jacob Epstein and is protected by a glass screen installed in 2011.  .