Walking with the Dead

It may sound like a rather macabre way to spend your day, walking around a cemetery looking for people you never met, but over one million people come to Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris each year to look for the graves of their favorite author, composer, musician, or architect.

The cemetery was established in 1804 and named for King Louis XIV's spiritual advisor, Pere Francois de La Chaise (1624-1709). It covers 109 acres in the eastern part of Pairs. It was originally viewed as too far outside the city limits of Paris to be convenient, but the owners had a plan. They had the remains of writers Moliere and La Fontaine transferred and reburied in their cemetery. The plan worked, everyone wanted to be buried near the famous.

Besides being the resting ground for the famous, Pere-Lachaise is a beautiful place to walk on sunny afternoons in Paris. Searching for famous people among the monuments becomes a game of hide and seek, with the aid of maps purchased from the local shops.

Jim Morrison, one of the most popular sites.

The inscription reads: "ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ"-True to his own Spirit

-

"Thanks for the music."

Frédéric Chopin

Oscar Wilde

Monument to the dead in the center of Pere-Lachaise.

Figure above grave.

Burial sites from the 1800's & 1900's sit side by side.

After a long day of walking it's nice to sit down for a light meal and a bottle of wine. We wound up at Montmartre at Chez Eugene's, a popular eating place since 1900. Where we could relax and think on all we had seen.