Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [87]
Metro Belleville, Couronnes, Ménilmontant, Oberkampf, Pyrénées
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CIMETIÈRE DU PÈRE LACHAISE Map
www.pere-lachaise.com; 8am-6pm Mon-Fri, 8.30am-6pm Sat, 9am-6pm Sun mid-Mar–early Nov, 8am-5.30pm Mon-Fri, 8.30am-5.30pm Sat, 9am-5.30pm Sun early Nov–mid-Mar; Philippe Auguste, Gambetta or Père Lachaise
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GRAVE CONCERNS AT PÈRE LACHAISE
Camp as a row of tents and as fresh as a daisy, Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) is apparently as flamboyant in death as he was on his hotel deathbed, when he proclaimed ‘My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death – one of us has got to go.’ It seems that the Père Lachaise grave of the Irish playwright and humorist, who was sentenced to two years in prison in 1895 for gross indecency stemming from his homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas (1870–1945), has been attracting admirers, who plaster the ornate tomb with indelible lipstick kisses.
But Wilde’s tomb is not the only grave concern at Père Lachaise these days. A security guard had to be posted near the grave of rock singer Jim Morrison (1943–71) not long ago after fans began taking drugs and having sex on his tomb. The cemetery’s conservation office has even issued a leaflet outlining the rules of conduct when visiting the grave. Meanwhile, up in division 92, a protest by women has seen the removal of a metal fence placed around the grave of one Victor Noir, pseudonym of the journalist Yvan Salman (1848–70), who was shot and killed by Pierre Bonaparte, great-nephew of Napoleon, at the age of just 22. According to legend, a woman who strokes the amply filled crotch of Monsieur Noir’s prostrate bronze effigy will enjoy a better sex life or become pregnant. Apparently some would-be lovers and mothers were rubbing a bit too enthusiastically and the larger-than-life-size package was being worn down, the (now dismantled) fence was built to protect the statue.
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The world’s most visited cemetery, Père Lachaise (named after a confessor of Louis XIV) opened its one-way doors in 1804. Its 69,000 ornate, even ostentatious, tombs of the rich and/or famous form a verdant, 44-hectare sculpture garden. Among the 800,000 people buried here are: the composer Chopin; the playwright Molière; the poet Apollinaire; writers Balzac, Proust, Gertrude Stein and Colette; the actors Simone Signoret, Sarah Bernhardt and Yves Montand; the painters Pissarro, Seurat, Modigliani and Delacroix; the chanteuse (singer) Édith Piaf; the dancer Isadora Duncan; and even those immortal 12th-century lovers, Abélard and Héloïse (Click here), whose remains were disinterred and reburied here together in 1817 beneath a neogothic tombstone.
Particularly visited graves are those of Oscar Wilde, interred in Division 89 in 1900, and 1960s rock star Jim Morrison, who died in an flat at 17–19 rue Beautreillis (4e; Map) in the Marais in 1971 and is buried in Division 6.
On 27 May 1871, the last of the Communard insurgents, cornered by government forces, fought a hopeless, all-night battle among the tombstones. In the morning, the 147 survivors were lined up against the Mur des Fédérés (Wall of the Federalists), shot and buried where they fell in a mass grave. It is in the southeastern section of the cemetery.
Père Lachaise has five entrances, two of which are on blvd de Ménilmontant. Maps indicating the location of noteworthy graves are available for free from the conservation office ( 01 55 25 82 10; 16 rue du Repos, 20e) in the southwestern corner of the cemetery.
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UNDERGROUND ART
Museums and galleries are not the sole proprietors of art in Paris. Indeed, it is all around you – even in metro stations. Almost half of the 373 stations were given a face-lift to mark the centenary of the world-famous Métropolitain in 2000, and many of them were assigned specific themes, usually relating to the quartier or the name of the station (eg Montparnasse