Venasque WWI Memorial

Today I bring you to the medieval town of Venasque in Provence.

Less than a dozen kilometers southeast from Carpentras where my parents lived for many years, perched up on a rocky outcrop, is this picturesque old town we often passed through on our outings by car.

Fortunately we stopped one time so I could capture this World War I memorial for Taphophile Tragics.

Venasque, 2007

While I liked the monochrome version, my honey preferred the color... so mouseover and choose your own. But he agreed that this handsome profile of the fallen soldier looked better in black and white.

The war memorial stands next to the Romanesque Church of Notre-Dame (12th-17th C).

And overlooks the Nesque valley below.

Roadside Memorial in Laos

Today I may be stretching the definition of taphophilia. Yet I feel these Lao memorials on a narrow but well-traveled road somewhere up in the hills between Vang Vieng and Vientienne are a special enough tribute to the dear departed to include in the Taphophile Tragics meme.

Memorials beside the highway to those killed in auto accidents are sadly not uncommon.  But have you ever seen this many on one spot?

 Laos, 2002

While the place was some distance from any residential area, we can see there are regular visitors. The incense in the small memorial altar was burning.

I'm only guessing that this is the curve in the road that causes the fatalities.

(Again my 2002 digital photos are grainy and my photography skills unimpressive. Rather than rotate and crop out large areas of this last image, I wanted to keep the detail and only rotated for a straight view.)