Muguet de Paris

Who would have guessed there are only two degrees of separation between a French feminist icon and a valiant hero of the American silver screen? Allow me to explain.

Marguerite Durand began her career playing ingenue roles at the Comédie Française, and then, after marrying, undertook a second career as a journalist. Sent by Le Figaro to cover an international women’s congress, she returned a committed feminist, devoting the rest of her life to women’s causes. She was an elegant rebel, as  passionate about animals as about everything she did, and was often seen strolling around the Parc Monceau with her pet lioness (called Tigre), whom she had raised in her garden. 

Lee Duncan was an American serviceman stationed in France during World War I. He adopted two puppies, a male and a female, from a litter found in a bombed-out kennel in Lorraine. The female contracted distemper and died shortly after arrival in the States. The male proved to be very intelligent, and Duncan trained him to do a number of tricks. In 1923,  he had his first starring role with Warner Brothers and is credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy. Duncan called him Rinty; you know him as Rin Tin Tin.

In the 19th century, the status of animals began to change. In England, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was formed, and in France in 1899, Marguerite Durand and Georges Harmois, a publicist, founded the world’s first animal cemetery at Asnières-sur-Seine, a village on the left bank of the Seine. Although known as the Cimetière des Chiens, there are cats, birds, rabbits, tortoises, mice, hamster, horses, fish, monkeys, a gazelle.

For a pleasant excursion outside of Paris, one need only cross the Pont de Clichy to arrive at the cemetery; it is feels like another world, another time. The entrance is the work of architect Eugène Petit. Conceived in the Art Nouveau style, a central portal is flanked by two pedestrian entries. Just inside the entrance, in the shade of a large tree, stands a  sculpture commemorating Barry, the famous rescue dog of the Hospice du Grand Saint Bernard.

The mouments vary in style and in grandeur.  All attest to the love shared between these animals and their human companions. A stone bears a message from her master to Hera, “lover of the sea, may the Seine cradle your final repose.”

We learn that Frou Frou died of grief in 1908, the day after the death of her mistress. On another grave, a simple slab of marble supports a globe in the center, filled with tennis balls. Many bear pictures of the departed pets, such as that of Ulysses, a Siamese cat, with the inscription, “Happy is he who, like Ulysses, lives in our hearts.”

Some, like the memorial to Barry, bear witness to the heroism of certain dogs (of course, some of us think all dogs are heroes). There is a monument in honor of the police dogs who have died in the line of duty. A little dog raises his paw to a soldier. It is Mémère, the mascot of infantrymen in World War I.

In 1958, a dog died just outside the gates of the cemetery. A monument was erected to her, “the 40,000th beast who has found her final rest at the Cimetière des Chiens d’Asnières.”

This tranquil necropolis has its living residents, as well. The colony of cats who live on the grounds are fed and cared for by volunteers. They may be seen sunning themselves on the gravestones or frolicking on the sculptures.

Ah, yes — the connection. When his beloved Rinty died in 1932 at the age of 14, Lee Duncan arranged to have his body taken back to his native land. Rin Tin Tin’s grave is at the Cimetière des Chiens, where he shares his final resting place with Tigre, Marguerite Durand’s lioness, and her racehorse.

Jan del Monte, blogging from the rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris, France

© 2008 Jan del Monte

∞

~ by Jane del Monte on April 14, 2008.

Posted in Architecture, L'Art de Vivre