Tag: Ferdinand de Lesseps

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“Sex Toy and Other Père Lachaise Neighbors”

Did you find this blog in your computer junk file? I have a feeling today’s blog might end up there because of the title. But don’t worry, it’s not what you might think. So, I hope everyone took my advice from our last blog and checked their junk file.

Today, we are going to visit with some occupants of Paris’s best-known cemetery: Père Lachaise. We’ll start with Delphine Palatsi and then introduce you to some of the inhabitants, who like Delphine, you’ve likely never heard of. However, I guarantee you that they all had very interesting lives.

Most of the books written about Père Lachaise contain very famous and well-known celebrities such as Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Colette, and naturally, Jim Morrison. However, I want to be different so, my future book, Where Did They Bury Jim Morrison? A Walking Tour of Curious Paris Cemeteries will take you around and introduce you to people who have disappeared into the black hole of history. The common thread is that all of them led interesting lives and in one way or another, were historically significant in their day ⏤ some even left legacies we appreciate today. You’ll visit Baron Haussmann, Jane Avril, Ferdinand de Lesseps, and Guy Môquet as well as some occupants (e.g., Rin Tin Tin ⏤ the dog, remember?) of other curious Paris cemeteries.

In the meantime, let me give you a sneak preview and introduce you to Sex Toy and some of her Père Lachaise neighbors including the most erotic effigy in the cemetery (or any other cemetery for that matter).

Did You Know?

Did you know that when all of us  are gone, our children are not going to want most of the “stuff” we’ve accumulated over our lifetime? Their generation has no desire to hold onto great grandma’s set of china plates or grandma’s complete set of silverware (and I mean real silver, not the silver-plated stuff). Your stamp collection? You might as well start to learn how to become a seller on eBay. None of this stuff has any meaning or significance to them.

However, many of us have kept lots of paper. This is paper which documents parts of our lives as well as the people in our lives. A personal example I can use is the two-and-a-half-inch stack of Aerogramme Luchtpostblad (a sheet of light paper folded and sealed to form a letter for sending by airmail) which my father gave me years ago. These are letters my mother wrote to my grandparents when we were living in Holland during the mid-1960s. It seems my grandmother kept every letter and before she passed away, gave the stack of letters to Mom. The letters pretty much document most of our years living in Holland and highlight events I had forgotten about or rekindle an untold story to an event that I do remember.Air Mail Letter I’m not too sure if our children want these letters but if they don’t, I’m going to brainwash our grandchildren into believing they need them. Better yet, I’ll make it a condition of taking the letters (and the silverware) if they want to get their grubby little hands on our art collection (just kidding kids ⏤ well, sort of).

Let’s Meet Delphine Palatsi – Division 28

Let’s stop by and pay our respects to Sex Toy. Yes, she went by this name ⏤ she might have had it legally changed because it’s on her grave. Delphine Palatsi (1968-2002) was a groundbreaking Parisian DJ specializing in electronic or techno music. I’m not too sure what the technical or street names are for this type of music. You see, like the song says, “I like that old time rock n’roll.” Read More “Sex Toy and Other Père Lachaise Neighbors”

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Explosive Rats

I know you’re thinking this blog might be a continuation of our story about Parisian rats (read Paris Therapy Rats here) but it’s not. The rats in this blog post are far deadlier than those running around Paris. I introduced you to Duško Popov in a previous blog (read The Double Cross System here). Double agent Popov was likely the model for Ian Fleming’s fictional character, James Bond. Today, you’ll learn about the secret group set up by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and run by movie film and art directors. As you’ll see, the Camouflage Section might just be the model Fleming used for Q Branch.

One of the Camouflage Section’s spy workrooms. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). National History Museum - London.
One of the Camouflage Section’s spy workrooms. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). National History Museum – London.

Did You Know?

Did you know that a professional baseball player was a spy? Most of us are familiar with the war efforts of players like Ted Williams but I’ll bet you don’t know the real story of Moe Berg (1902-1972), a catcher who played for the White Sox, Indians, Red Sox, and finally, the Washington Senators. He retired from baseball in 1939 after a career which saw him bat .243 as a reserve player ⏤ hardly an Allstar performance. Yet, in 1934, Moe traveled to Japan on an All-Star team which included Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Lefty Gomez. Why would they include a reserve player on a team like this? It was because Moe spoke fluent Japanese and he was a government spy. For most of the trip, he slipped away to take movies and pictures of Tokyo which were used eight years later for the preparation of the Doolittle bombing raid on Tokyo. It also marked Moe’s entrance into the world of espionage. He joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1942 and was given covert assignments such as traveling around Europe assessing Germany’s progress in developing the atomic bomb. The purpose of one trip to Italy was to attend a lecture given by Werner Heisenberg, the German scientist in charge of the bomb development. Moe’s instructions included being given the “green light” to assassinate Heisenberg if Moe felt the Germans were close to producing a bomb. They were not and Heisenberg’s life was spared. Moe was awarded the American Medal of Freedom, but he turned it down. After his death, Moe’s sister accepted the medal on his behalf.

Special Operations Executive 

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was officially formed on 22 July 1940 when Winston Churchill ordered Hugh Dalton to “set Europe ablaze.” Churchill loved the idea of spies, espionage, and guerilla warfare. At the time, the British military leaders were against it as it represented irregular warfare tactics, but Churchill knew that undercover covert operations within the occupied countries would be necessary to accomplish the Allied goals, including the eventual invasion of Europe. Each occupied country was represented by a separate SOE department ⏤ France was represented by “F Section.” Approximately 13,000 people worked for the SOE, of which 3,200 or 25% were women. Most of the agents were people who had been driven out of their countries and could blend in easily with the locals. Although the SOE was headquartered at 64 Baker Street, hundreds of properties were requisitioned throughout England and Scotland for training its agents in hand-to-hand combat, parachuting, demolition techniques, commando tactics, and radio-related skills. Read More Explosive Rats