Upon arrival, we first checked out the crematorium, which holds a total of over 13,000 cubicles for cremated remains. One cubicle belongs to opera singer, Maria Callas. We've never heard of her, but did check out her cubicle, which was adorned with all sorts of little notes from fans over the years.
We then walked over to Oscar Wilde's tomb, which is covered in kisses. Even the glass case had some lipstick markings!
Next up was Gertrude Stein. Her partner Alice is also buried with her.
As we continued our tour, we also saw several statues and monuments dedicated to Resistance heroes and the victims of concentration camps throughout World War II. It was moving to see these statues.
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| Several pebbles laid on all of the monuments, which signify Jewish prayers |
We also saw French singer, Edith Piaf's grave. I've always enjoyed Edith Piaf's music, especially after seeing "La Vie en Rose". Being able to visit her tomb was definitely a highlight.
The next grave is of the comic playwright, Molière. Until today, we didn't know who he was, so it was pretty cool to learn about this guy. He was almost instantly made famous when we was able to make King Louis XIV laugh. The story about his death is also very ironic.
And finally, the moment I've been waiting for....Jim Morrison's grave! I've been pretty excited to see his grave, since I've been a fan of The Doors since high school.
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| Little graffiti-work pointing you in the direction to Jim |
Because of the popularity of his grave and due to the fact that a bust of Jim was stolen by fans years ago, his grave is usually accompanied with a security guard. But when we got there, it was just closed off quite a few feet away. Unfortunate, but I was still happy to be there!
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| One of the dozens of notes that fans left near his grave |
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| We even left a note! |
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| "Jim - The rider on the storm. A's 09/2015" |
And literally not even after two minutes of writing that note, the sun disappears, a big ole storm cloud rolls in and buckets of rain start coming down, along with some thunder and lightening. Kinda creepy, but it was fun! Everyone who was around us scampered to the closest shelter they could find to keep as dry as possible (including us...luckily I brought an umbrella).
We hid out for a couple of minutes until we figured we should keep on moving. We also realized we saw most of the tombs we really wanted to see, and we didn't have much of a desire to see other celebrities (probably because of the rain). But some other notables that are buried here are Fréderic Chopin, Colette, Jacques-Louis David, Eugène Delacroix, Georges Seurat, and Marcel Proust. They would have been interesting to see, but we had our fill.
It's kind of dark, but we really like going to cemeteries. There's something peaceful about them. So being able to go "off the beaten path" to Père Lachaise was a fun experience for us. If only the weather wasn't so unpredictable, we probably would've wandered around longer, and visited some of the other graves. But perhaps on a nicer day, we'll pay another visit!
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