On Sunday, Suz and I walked to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery—the most visited, and relatively new, cemetery in Paris. It looks like a miniature city spread over 100 acres with a great number of empty houses and shrines of every size and style among the many trees. It even has its own arrangement of numbered divisions that is not haphazard yet doesn’t seem to be systematic either. These, however—and the map we bought from the local news stand guy—are the only helpful ways to find the appropriate graves.
Pere (Father) Francois de la Chaise was Louis XIV’s confessor and lived in the area before it became a cemetery in 1804. Established by Napoleon when the Paris cemeteries closed because they presented a health hazard, it was seen to be too far out of the city and therefore, attracted few funerals. So the administrators devised a marketing plan and organized the transfer of LaFontaine’s and Moliere’s remains. This, along with the transfer of the remains of lovers Pierre Abelard and Heloise in 1817 (see 2-12-07 blog), had the desired effect of people clamoring to be buried among these famous citizens. Within a few years, Pere Lachaise went from a few dozen permanent residents to more than 33,000. Today the cemetery has a population of about 70,000—more including those in the Crematorium—and still accepts new residents. However, you better have a little nest egg put aside because the rates are very high.After entering the cemetery and before following Rick Steves’ tour, we sat on the steps of the
Crematorium in the intermittent sun, clouds, and sprinkles to highlight on our map the tombs we wanted to visit. This, we felt, made our tour more logical and time-efficient and assured that we visited all those in whom we were interested (a “Clista thing,” Suz said). There are so many stories about the cemetery residents—ones I’ve already blogged about included Victor Hugo (writer), Eugene Delacroix (painter), Baron Haussmann (Paris city planner), Moliere (comic), Abelard and Heloise (lovers), etc. Others we enjoyed included Edith Piaf’s (singer); Maria Callas’ (opera
singer and Aristotle Onassis’ lover—although her urn is empty after being stolen and her ashes scattered into the Aegean Sea); Oscar Wilde’s (writer—who’s vandalized once-prominent penis on his tomb was last seen on the cemetery director’s desk being used as a paper weight); Fredric Chopin (composer—only his heart is entombed here—his body is in a pillar in a Warsaw church); David (only his heart; Napoleon’s court painter, his “Coronation of Napoleon” is displayed in the Louvre); Sarah Bernhardt (actress); Yves Montand and Simone Signoret (married actors—buried together); Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (writers—buried in separate coffins but laying head to head). Pere Lachaise’s most visited grave is probably Jim Morrison’s. The Doors’ singer came to Paris in 1971 and hung out, partied, drank, wrote, took drugs, jammed with other musicians. Less than six months later, he died in his bathtub at age 27—probably from an overdose. Jim wanted to be buried in Pere Lachaise but the administrator refused to admit him—until they mentioned he was a writer and immediately found him a spot. This is the only
gravesite with a guard—because of the number of visitors and the damage to his tomb and others around it.In this peaceful cemetery with 5,000 trees, we had a good time meandering along the lanes and visiting the famous dead. Even with the off and on clouds and sun, it did seem more appropriate when it was sprinkling. (Suz took the street scene and Chopin photos.)
