Beautiful Graveyards

The french do not forget their dead. In Pittsburgh, I drive past a cemetery and it is usually dotted sporadically with flowers. I get the same results when I drive past the big cemetery in San Pedro, Calif. Many headstones are bare and have been for some time. The older headstones are usually void of all color or remembrance.

The French are very different in how they remember their dead. They spend a good amount of time caring for their loved ones who have passed. They build gardens of live flowers, trees and plants directly on the headstone. Every grave is marked with color. This is a neat custom.

We saw many headstones in France since we did many tours of battlefields. Soldier's graves and people who were killed during World War II had their headstones well kept and covered with color.

In Rixheim, we saw people gardening in the church cemetery like it was their own back yard.