were they alive or dead when their 50 year concession was acquired… ?
Woof ! a biscuit?
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That’s more than I was thinking for a double, although I admit I didn’t have a figure in mind. The reason I thought it would be cheaper was because our former neighbour, Kathy, had her partner buried 30 odd years ago in Provence and she and her 2 daughters were setting off from here one day to pay the instalment. As she and her beloved were travelling hippies, feeding themselves with casual work, I doubt they had more than a few pennies to rub between them back then.
or the plot is emptied…
What do they do with the contents?
Public ossuary - basically a plot where all old bones are re-buried. I saw the new one being constructed in my old commune in a previously abandoned plot which is what happens when families stop paying the concessions. They also made a public ashes depository for those who did not want to be in the columbarium or pay the fees.
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Go to Tesco for a BOGOF?
Too soon?
all done officially, not a free-for-all… 
bones are disposed off in a special spot within the confines of the cemetery… if there’s not room within the vault…
I’ve only been present when one old-tenant was being displaced to make way for another family member… and I think what little still remained was crushed (taking up much less space) and then tucked down-under…) leaving room for the new arrival.
I think that was the plan… but I decided to trot home and leave 'em to it…
Ah, but even long lapsed Catholics (comme moi) believe that dogs have souls!
Would suit me, can you have that from the outset instead?
cremation and scattering the ashes… is about the nearest… 
Who is it that wears the dog collar?
Problem with that is, Fran is determined on a plot. 
Some years ago I won a contract to renovate an old churchyard installing paths, a carpark, lighting and drainage. The contract stated that shoukd we unearth any old bones work had to stop immediately for 8 hours and the diocese called to come and remove them, bless them or do whatever they had to do. If not done within 8 hours then we got paid for down time.
We had just finished a site meeting and I was remarking to my foreman how lucky we had been to avoid digging up any bones. At the time we were stood next to a skip that was full of excavated material.
My foreman gave a rye smile and ran his hand over the skip enough to disturb the surface and expose a bone!
We did later unearth a 16th century coffin within the chapel and the local University got involved spending 3 days doing surveys and the like. The press got involved and we got some good positive free advertising for being caring contractors!
We came across a mass grave when the gallery was being expanded, as you said a bit of a hold up but all good in the end. At least with cremations that problem is solved.
It was originally a symbolic slave collar, but you know how cultural drift goes.
I have a few of the wrist amuletts retrieved whilst wreck diving.
Sounds barley ethical
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Very wry!
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Very corny
I’ve posted before that I’ve a varied collection of manillas, some of which were use in the slave trade between France, Britain and Benin, but also others that weret pre-colonial central African currencies, but were still in use in many places until the mid-C20th when they were replaced by paper bank notes.
My largest iron currency unit is a blade currency from what is currently the Democratic Republic of Congo it’s nearly as tall as me, but was picked up at a local vide grenier for €70 - I’ve just checked the going rate for a similar item and it’s $1500. Interesting how currency can fluctuate!
Today, apart from colonial-era folk art, these and a few textiles like Kuba cloth are the only reliably authentique sub-Saharan antiques one is likely to find anywhere. Anything else unles there’s a pre 1940 provenance is likely to be a modern fake.