Le Pierre Embrassé de Cherbourg

in august 2025 the white marble gravestone of jacques demy and agnes avarda is surrounded by green vines, interwoven with fake flowers, and a string of prayer flags reaches out from the top to the right edge of the image. the gravestone is covered with red lipstick marks and doodles. the grave in front is covered with dead flowers, pine cones, and potatoes, a reference to varda's last good film that didn't involve jr, les glaneurs et la glaneuse.

Well the most popular grave in the Cimitière de Montparnasse is not Chaïm Soutine’s, Samuel Beckett’s, or even Jean-Paul Sartre & Simone de Beauvoir’s—though they’re close. It’s Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda’s.

And while the gleaned potatoes and pine cones and even the prayer flags are chill, I cannot get past the number of people who kiss the headstone with big cheesy red lips, or write on it with lipstick.

It reminds me of the woman who kissed the Twombly in Avignon, who was like, I couldn’t control myself, it’s an act of love. And honestly, people should be able to control themselves at least this much.