Paris' Père Lachaise Cemetery

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"We die only once, and for such a long time"

...a quote by the French comic playwright Molière, the first person interred at Père Lachaise. He actually died in 1673 but was reburied here in 1804, in a ploy to entice more people to be laid to rest in the cemetery. The bourgeoisie society of the early 1800's thought the grave yard was too remote and unappealing. Eventually it did become popular to be buried here, and now it is a city of the dead. 100 acres of cobblestone paths and mature trees, 70,000 inhabitants. This cemetery is absolutely worth searching out.

The funerary art is beautiful. The cemetery statues and reliefs show such vulnerable emotion, grief, saddness, despair. But at the same time it is full of the innocence of angels, trust and hope of the everlasting.

Y'all don't know how difficult it was for me to choose the right amount of photos, so that there would only be one page for you to look at, but I couldn't do it. Keith and I spent the better part of the day wandering around with our map, finding the famous and not so famous residents. Pere Lachaise is so popular that the florists outside the cemetery sell maps.

One grave you may be aware of is Jim Morrison's. He's been dead 37 years - feel old? There were bunch of people around his grave, we read that the families of the graves around his are not happy with the number of visitors coming to see him, or with their behavior while they pay tribute. Supposedly there is a security guard, but no one looked secure to me. His neighboring graves did have writing on them, and I noticed a mausoleum with wire around it's door.
Over at Oscar Wilde's grave, lots of 'lipstick kisses' cover his tomb.
And Poland's favorite son, Frederic Chopin, whose piano compositions are becoming my favorites, had so many tourists! It was covered with flowers and people having their photo clicked. That explained why the language we heard most in the cemetery that day was Polish!

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Photos

did somebody say something
The old towns of Europe remind
Keith of Disneyland, these guys look like they were in a favorite attraction

Morrison graffiti
his grave is just in the background

aux morts
Monument to the Dead
when researching this monument, i saw photos from just a couple of years ago where her arm is intact, reaching over to his shoulder

Wilde
the design of this angel makes his wings appear to heavy to fly