"Covering an area of 43 hectares, or just over 105 acres (of which I walked all of it), the Pere-Lachaise cemetary is the largest in Paris. In the seventheeth century, the Jesuits acquired this estate and called it Mont-Louis. They built a hospice on it and one of the most illustrious members of their Society, Father La Chaise-Louiz XIV's confessor- retired there. Following Robert Damien's attempt to wound Louis XV, the Jesuits were expelled from the kingdom and the buildings on Mont-Louis handed over to the creditors. Napoleon I was responsible for the reacquisition of the property, which from 1804 became known as the Cimeterie de L'Est (Eastern Cemetery). The capitals largest burial ground is also a splendid park (they aren't kidding - it was un petit strange to see people parked among the headstones having lunch, making out, tanning..) Although Pere-Lachaise is an excellent place for a stroll, it would be wrong to think of it simply as another tourist attraction, for it has other claims to greatness. More than a picturesque garden, more than a complex and varied collection of architecture, Pere-Lachaise is truly an unusual place. Lan od the dead, or rather of Death, its paths and die paths form a truly phantasmagoric maze. Mystic enclosure within earshot of the sounds of the city, Pere-Lachaise lives on its history, its secrets and its legends (necrophilism, prostitution, black masses). The cemetery is also a place of pilgrimage for thousands of its adepts: come come to meditate at some illustrious person's grave, while others indulge in more obscure rituals. On All Saint's Day, the graves of Alfred de Musset and Sarah Bernhardt are covered with flowers, and every day sees a stream of visitors coming to touch the bronze bust of Allan-Kardec, the great spiritualist philosopher in order to have their wishes be fulfilled. The visitor will find it hard to resis the beauty of the place and the memories that the famous figures buried there bring to mind: the writers from Moliere, and La Fontaine to Gereard de Nerval and Oscar Wilde; the politicians from Adolphe Thiers to Maurice Thorez;... The visitor will surely be moved by by the memory of the Federes of the Paris Commune (1871), whose graves are on the spot where they were actually shot. In this listtle corner of history one can almost hear the message of their faith in the future."
Today, I visited Jim Morrison, Pierre Bourdieu, Auguste Compte, Moliere et La Fontaine, Victor Hugo's family (parcequ'il au Pantheon), Marcel Marceau, Chopin, Honore de Balzac, Marcel Proust, Eugene Delacroix, et finalement Oscar Wilde. The cemetery was beautiful. It was a maze and amazing. I spent about 5 hours there playing hide and seek with graves and found almost all of the ones I set out to find. I was impressed to know that there is someone with the last name Sex Toy buried there. I spent about 30 minutes in this person's plot looking for the grave, but ended up moving on to the other celebrities. A quick google search tells me that Delphine Palatsi was a French DJ (stage name Sex Toy) and she died in 2002.
Here is her grave. You can thank French Wikipedia (the English version didn't have a page for her...)
For those who asked me to visit Jim Morrison, here you go:
And here is the street where he lives, if you ever visit:
I learned from other visitors of his grave that this is the fourth headstone because the first three were stolen or vandalized.
Now, for the sociologists who might be reading, the following pictures are for you:
His headstone was covered in rocks and a pencil, which I vote appropriate.
And this is where Bourdieu calls home.
Moving on, we meet Auguste Comte (who, I will admit, was the hardest to find)
With little commentary, here are other cultural dignitaries:
Moliere
La Fontaine
Marcel Marceau
Honore de Balzac
Eugene Delacroix
I think I reached my limit on this page, so the rest will be a part 2. Suivez-moi!
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