Cimetiere du Père Lachaise

Cimetiere du Père Lachaise

Cemetery Père Lachaise, located in the north eastern section of Paris, in comparison to Montparnasse Cemetery in the south west, is clearly where all the cool people of Paris are buried. With the likes of Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Gertrude Stein, and Jim Morrison, you can't get a more celeb group in just a mere 100 acres.

Unlike traditional Christian and Jewish cemeteries, anyone - regardless of race, gender, religion, sexuality, even suicide victims - are allowed to be buried there.

On a rainy Toussaints Day (All Saints Day on November 1) Leslie, Cecily and I decided to venture up to the lesser known part of the city to explore the famed cemetery we had only briefly heard about.
Note: "Hanging out" in cemeteries in France is not considered morbid or bizarre as it is in the USA, rather their original purpose of creation in large cities was to create a space that had grass and other foliage. In Paris it is not uncommon to see people picnicking on a nice day.

View Larger Map


Père Lachaise Entrance

just one of the many "street" through the cemetery


more ornate graves

a crematorium that is home to over 30,000+ cremated remains

Proust - French novelist

Delacroix - French Artist

Balzac - 19th century French novelist

Jim Morrison


tribute tree near Morrison's grave
due to excessive graffitiing and other vandalism to his grave, the grave itself is block off from the public via a fence. Since this a tree has become a place where people leave their tributes to the singer.

Gertrude Stein - American writer, poet, and art collector. She was an advisor to many American ex-pat writers living in Paris at the time, some of the most famous including Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Most of her art collection included that of Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, and Renoir.

Edith Piaf - French sing best-known for her pieces "La Vie en Rose" and "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien"

Georges Haussmann - civil engineer and planner for the city of Paris

Oscar Wilde - Irish novelist and playwright
unfortunately I did not get to see the actual gravestone - this is an image I found on the internet. Wilde's gravestone is currently under restoration because it is in danger of being permanently damaged from all the lipstick from the kissing of the grave. The fats contained in lipstick are staining the marble and ruining his headstone.