Visiting a cemetery while on a vacation may seem a bit morbid and morose to some. However, Paris’s Père Lachaise cemetery is the final resting place for some very influential artists and rich with its own history.
Budget an hour or two to stroll through the cemetery and pay your respects to these people.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde was a poet, playwright, journalist and author from Ireland and lived much of his life in London. During his life, he was convicted of engaging in homosexual acts and sentenced to two years of hard labor, which took a severe toll on his health and led him to exile and eventual death in France.
He died due to complications of menegitis in 1900 and was initially buried in Cimetière parisien de Bagneux. He was moved to Père Lachaise cemetery in 1909. His tomb was commissioned by Robert Ross and designed by Jacob Epstein. Throughout the years, admires left lipstick prints on the tomb, though in 2011 a glass barrier has been put up to prevent any further markings.
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an novelist, poet, playwright and art collector from the United States. She moved to Paris in her late 20s and lived in France for the rest of her life with her long-time partner Alice B. Toklas.
She died from inoperable stomach cancer in 1946 and was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery. Alice was entombed next to her after her death in 1967. Their shared headstone is covered in pebbles, as a part of Jewish tradition to honor the dead.
Edith Piaf
Edith Piaf was a singer, songwriter and performer. She took her stage name, Piaf, which means sparrow, from a nickname she got while she was young. Her life was particularly hardscrabble, from being abandoned by her mother and enduring numerous illnesses.
She died of liver cancer, and after long battles with addictions, in 1963. She is buried with her family members in Père Lachaise cemetery. The cardinal denied her a church funeral, however thousands lined the streets for her funeral procession, stopping traffic.
Molière
Molière was a French playwright, actor and poet and is widely regarded as one of the greatest French writers in history. He lived by the patronage of several aristocrats, including King Louis XIV. However, many of his satirical works were criticized by the Catholic Church, which was often the subject of the satire.
Molière died in 1673, shortly after performing in one of his plays, The Imaginary Invalid, in which he played a hypochondriac. He had several hemorragic coughing fits on stage, but insisted on continuing the performance. Initially, he was denied a burial on church grounds because French law prohibited actors from being buried on sacred ground. His wife petitioned the king, who made allowances for him to buried where the unbaptized infants were buried. He was moved to Père Lachaise cemetery in 1817.
Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison was a singer, songwriter and poet from the United States and is best known as the frontman of the Doors. He is remembered as being a part of the hippie counter-culture and a prolific writer.
In early 1971, he went to Paris to be with his girlfriend. He was found dead in his bathtub in July and the cause of death was determined as heart failure. However, there was never an autopsy, so the official cause of his death is unknown.
He was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery and is probably one of the most vandalized graves. Initially, his grave was unmarked; then French authorities placed a shield over the grave. A Croatian sculpture created a bust of him that was placed at the grave and was later stolen. In the early 1990s, his father installed the current bronze plaque, that reads “ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ” which means “according to his own demon.”
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin was a composer and pianist from Poland. He was a child prodigy and gain acclaim for his technically demanding style. Chopin moved to Paris when we was 21 and lived there for the remainder of his life. He made his living by selling his compositions and teaching piano lessons.
He died from complications of tuberculosis in 1849. Per his request, based in the fear of being buried alive, his body was opened and his heart was removed, to be taken to Poland. He was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery beneath a statue of Euterpe, the muse of music, crying over a broken lyre.
Colette
Collette was a novelist, actress and journalist from France. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature and her best known work is Gigi, which has been made into a movie and stage play. During her lifetime, she was frequently referred to as France’s greatest woman writer.
She died in 1954 and the Catholic Church denied her a funeral. However, she became the first French woman of letters to be granted a state funeral.
How to Visit
The cemetery itself is easily accessible using the Metro system and there are maps available at the entrances.
I followed Rick Steves’ walking tour for the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, which is available through apps both on iOS and Android platforms. It’s also available as an mp3 download, with the map on his site.
Have you visited Père Lachaise cemetery? What graves did you visit?