Where art Jimmy…?

Felix Faure, President of France 1895-99, more famous after his scandalous death

Pere Lachaise Cemetery is probably one of the largest and most visited cemeteries in the world. With personalities such as Oscar Wilde, Sophie Blanchard (1st professional female balloonist), Auguste Compte (French free thinker), Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (French painter), Chopin, Jim Morrison and many many more from different disciplines in arts, Science, Literature, and of course history. There are also many memorials devoted to the tens of thousand of French Jews who were deported to Nazi death camps. It is undoubtedly one of the most prettiest cemeteries in the world and a must do if you visit Paris.

Entrance of the Cemetery with the signboard on the left

We happened to be in the neighbourhood last Sunday and my boyfriend thought that it would be a good idea to visit Jim Morrison’s grave. On entering the cemetery, there is a signboard with a map of the cemetery indicating where the most famous people are buried. If you are short of time and looking for someone in particular to pay your respects to, I suggest you also get a print-out of the map from the internet as there are very few other references anywhere else in the cemetery. The Sun Gods had decided to pay us a visit that day (if only for a few hours), so we decided to make the most of our day out and use our instinct to guide us to Jim.

The cemetery by itself is a gorgeous place to spend the day. Contrary to the popular and accepted notion of cemeteries being creepy, almost every tomb here is a work of art by itself. Being the first garden cemetery in France, a lot of care has been given to maintaining the tombs and monuments and their surrounding areas. In some ways, it feels like an open air museum where you come face to face with the artists themselves and not their achievements.

The cemetery was not always so popular. When Pere Lachaise first opened its gates officially to the public, many people avoided  having their funerals there. They claimed it was too far away from the city and most Catholics refused to bury their loved ones in a place that was not blessed by the Church. Eventually the administrators who managed it resorted to marketing tactics and made special arrangements to ship the remains of Jean de La Fontaine (the most famous French Fabulist), Molière(French comedy actor) and other famous names who created history. This strategy worked and in the years to follow, people flocked to be buried amongst these famous corpses. Pere Lachaise was expanded 5 times and now has over 1 million bodies and many more in the Columbarium – a large structure in the centre of its ground that contains the remains of those who requested cremation.

The Columbarium where people are cremated.

Another perspective of the structure

The grave of a husband and wife with a memoir of their pet

A permanent rose carved on one of the tombs

Nowadays with so many lined up to be buried at Pere Lachaise, the rules have become strict and there is a long waiting list. You can only be buried here if you died in the French capital or lived here. You will sign a 30 year lease which, if not renewed at its end, simply means that the administrators are allowed to remove the remains and make space for a new grave. One way the cemetery manages to squeeze an increasing number of bodies into an already crowded space finite and already crowded space is by combining the remains of multiple family members in the same grave. It is not uncommon to reopen a grave after a body has decomposed and inter another coffin.

After about an hour when we finally did arrive at Jim Morrison’s grave, we found a remarkably simple tomb. It was obviously one of the most visited tombs as it seemed to be the only one that had a barricade around it preventing anyone from touching the grave. Apparently, when he was first buried there, it was an unmarked grave and when the cemetery placed a simple marker on it, the marker was stolen. later a bust of Morrison that was placed on the tomb was also stolen. To prevent more theft and vandalism to other tombs, a guard was temporarily placed by the tomb. A simple Greek message stays on his tomb today which says ‘in his own daimon’. Fans still leave many gifts, memorabilia and flowers over his grave.

Jim Morrison’s grave

Since I’m not a big Morrison fan, i found this tomb next to it more interesting

So if you are visiting Paris and have some time, Pere Lachaise Cemetery should definitely be on your list of things you ‘must visit’in the city. Even if its not for the famous personalities buried here, at least for the art, craftsmanship, photography value and joy of walking through such a beautiful garden.

Designed by artist / photographer André Chabot, the monument represents a 1 ton Granite unique copy of his own LEICA Camera with which he has photographed all the Cemeteries in the World.