Thirsty Journeys

On the morning of our flight back home from Paris, France, my husband and I visited Père-Lachaise Cemetery. We had decided to leave it to the last day of our trip, since it was just a short walk from our apartment in the 11th arrondissement. We arrived just as it opened, so there were very few people around.

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Père-Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Paris, and is also the first “garden cemetery,” making it very picturesque and serene, filled with large trees and greenery. Although it looks much older, Père-Lachaise only opened in 1804.

Surprisingly, this cemetery wasn’t a very popular spot for people to be buried in at first. Back then, it was too far from the city, so the location wasn’t very desirable. So the administrators began a marketing campaign. This consisted of moving the remains of Moliere and Jean de La Fontaine to Père-Lachaise Cemetery later that same year.

Although this helped a bit, Père-Lachaise Cemetery didn’t become a popular burial place until after 1817. This was the year when the supposed remains of famous lovers Pierre Abelard and Heloise d’Argenteuil were transferred here. Having the remains of a few famous local artists and poets did the trick. Suddenly people were “dying” to be buried here. Thank you, I’ll be here all night!

As you walk around, take note of some of the magnificent details on some of the crypts and gravestones.

The detailing on this door to a crypt was a favourite of mine. Note the hourglasses with wings (time flies?) beautifully detailed grapevines and the bat in the center:

Famous People Buried at Père-Lachaise Cemetery

Of course, Jim Morrison is one of the most famous celebrities buried at Père-Lachaise. But there are many other famous personalities here as well. So many, in fact, that there is a list at the entrance with a map of the cemetery:

As you can see, the list is extensive: Maria Callas, Auguste Comte, Camille Pissarro, and so forth. We only had a few short hours to explore, so we chose a handful of graves that we wanted to see. We started with an obvious choice: Oscar Wilde.

You may be able to see the reflection of a maintenance vehicle in the protective glass. It was here to scrub off all the lipstick kisses left by adoring fans. There were even smooch marks on the lips of the sculpture:

While there were signs up asking visitors not to vandalize the grave, obviously people didn’t adhere to the request, and I imagine it requires frequent scrubbings.

We then wanted to find Édith Piaf’s grave, as we became enamoured of her music after watching La Vie En Rose. It was a bit trickier to find. The cemetery isn’t laid out quite as logically or numerically as one might expect. In hindsight, we should have picked up a map. But we did end up finding Ms. Piaf’s grave, with a bit of help from a phone app my husband found:

It was lovely to see fresh flowers that admirers had left, especially the roses.

There were some really spectacular graves and crypts. I thought Dominique Vivant, Baron de Denon’s grave was especially beautiful, and the flowers in his hand were a lovely touch. Denon was a writer, artist, diplomat and archaeologist. He was also the first director appointed to the Louvre by Napoleon after the Egyptian campaign of 1798–1801. The Louvre named the Denon wing after him:

Chopin’s grave was fairly easy to spot, and it’s quite lovely. I used the “dramatic” mode on my camera for this shot, which intensifies the colours. It wasn’t this dirty looking in real life:

By the time we found Chopin’s grave, we realized we were running a bit short on time. Jim Morrison’s grave was going to be our next site to search for, but we didn’t want to be late for our flight. It will have to wait until we return one day!

A few other famous names you may recognize that are buried at Pere Lachaise Cemetery include:

• actor and playright Molière
• novelist Marcel Proust
• novelist and playright Honoré de Balzac
• actor Yves Montand
• actress Sarah Bernhardt

Memorials

On our way to find Chopin’s grave, we passed jarring memorials such as this one, dedicated to the victims of Air France Flight 447, which went down on June 1, 2009 with 228 on board.

Père-Lachaise Cemetery has dozens of memorials throughout its grounds. This monument is dedicated to the Czechoslovakian soldiers who fought for France and their homeland in WW1.

Many of the memorials are dedicated to the lives lost during WWII. This memorial in particular was in memory of the 100,000 who died at Sachsenhausen concentration camp:

Père-Lachaise Cemetery does have a wonderful virtual tour online that you can explore at your leisure though: Père-Lachaise Cemetery

Getting To Père-Lachaise Cemetery

Address: You can enter the cemetery through 5 different entrances:

Main entrance:
Address : 8 boulevard de Menilmontant, 75020 Paris.

“Porte du Repos”:
Address : 16 rue du repos, 75020 Paris.

“Porte des Amandiers”:
Address : Boulevard de Menilmontant, 75020 Paris.

“Porte Gambetta”:
Address : 71, rue des Rondeaux, 75020 Paris 20.

Porte de la Réunion

Transport:

• “Porte des Amandiers” entrance: Metro: Père-Lachaise (line 2, 3) or by Bus: 61, 69.
• To the main entry gate or “Porte du Repos” entrances: Metro: Philippe Auguste (line 2) or by Bus: 61, 69.
• “Porte Gambetta” entrance: Metro: Gambetta (line 3, southern terminus of Line 3bis) or by Bus: 26, 60, 61, 69, 102.
• “Porte de la Réunion” entrance: Metro: Alexandre Dumas (line 2) or by Bus: 76.

Admission: Free, including guided tours, organized on Saturdays and Sundays

Hours of Operation:

November to mid-March:

Monday – Friday: 8 a.m.– 5:30 p.m.
Saturday: 8:30 a.m.– 5:30 p.m.
Sunday and public holidays: 9 a.m.– 5:30 p.m.

mid-March to October:

Monday – Friday: 8 a.m.– 6:00 p.m.
Saturday: 8:30 a.m.– 6:00 p.m.
Sunday and public holidays: 9 a.m.– 6:00 p.m.

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