WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 3 2016

intriguing sculptures. In many cases,
they also provide your best opportunity
to get up close and personal
with celebrities (albeit dead ones)
without having a restraining order
issued against you.
The first time I visited Paris, I dragged
my poor beleaguered husband to every
repository of human remains in
the city, including the granddaddy of
them all, Pere Lachaise. There you’ll
find Jim Morrison, his grave marked
by flowers, empty liquor bottles and
tiny plastic cups filled with…well,
how the heck do I know? I certainly
wasn’t drinking from them. But the
true rock star is Oscar Wilde, buried
beneath an Egyptian effigy that is
covered with red lipstick kisses everywhere.
EVERYWHERE, people.
My other great indulgences are ruins
and castles. Give me a ruined castle,
and I’m in heaven. There’s just something
about meandering along crumbling
walls and imagining the scenes
witnessed by those centuries-old
stones. The whispered conversations
by a fireplace. The secret assignations
on a spiral staircase. The
arrows that might have flown from
those window slits. The…oh crap…
did I just step in a wad of gum?
And so, sometimes, Mom, I also find
myself shopping for a new pair of
shoes.
Glass lamps are big at the Istanbul’s Grand
Bazaar . Opposite top: Oscar Wilde’s tomb at
Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Opposite
left: The ruins of Corfe Castle in Dorset,
England
You can find Amy at WWW.AMYLAUGHINGHOUSE.
COM and on Twitter @A_LAUGHINGHOUSE.
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