On Good Friday, Dr Will Norman (School of English) visited the University of Kent at Paris to entertain Paris students.

His lecture on the ‘beats’ in Paris enlightened students on the ‘beat hotel’ a run down and extremely basic, tatty and cheap hotel in the Latin quarter in the late 1950s and 60s which became residence to the members of the beat poetry movement, exemplified by spontaneous creativity and bohemian hedonism.  

One particular poem, ‘At Apollinaire’s Grave’ written by American poet Allen describes his feelings whilst at the famous grave in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

So, after coffee and croissants (as opposed to the traditional British hot-cross buns on Good Friday) , Dr Norman led us to the cemetery himself so that we could have our own mediations at Apollinaire’s grave.