Père Lachaise Cemetery with Shauna and Todd Godfrey

Shauna and Todd arrived Tuesday with Shauna's brother Greg and his wife, Jenny. Greg was a missionary in France 30 years ago and this was his first time back. Shauna and Todd visited us in Paris in 2018 so they had covered most of the important things to see in Paris. So when we finally had good weather and Greg and Jenny went out to Versailles, we decided to wander around the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Entry to Père Lachaise

The cemetery is named for Père François de la Chaise, the confessor of King Louis XIV, who lived on the site. The cemeteries in the center of Paris were overflowing and unsanitary and they wanted to bury people in more sanitary conditions further out of the city. The area was established as a cemetery in 1804 by Napoleon. But it was too far out of the city and attracted few funerals. As a marketing ploy, the administrators moved the graves of the playwright Molière and the author Jean de la Fontaine (who wrote fables like Aesop) to Père Lachaise and the cemetery started to become more popular.

Molière

Jean de la Fontaine

Then, with much fanfare in 1817, the purported remains of Abélard and Héloïse were also transferred to the cemetery along with their monument's canopy made from fragments of the abbey of Nogent-sur-Seine. Abélard and Héloïse were famous star crossed lovers in the 12th century. Lovers or lovelorn singles leave letters at the crypt in tribute to the couple or in hope of finding true love. After this, the cemetery became very popular.

Abélard and Héloïse

We printed out a copy of the cemetery map and the list of famous people and where they are buried before we left the apartment. Some websites still say you can get a map at the cemetery but that is no longer true. There are signs with maps near the entrance but it really helped to have one printed out. The cemetery is large with many paths and twists and turns and paved in cobblestones.

Wandering with Shauna and Todd

Blooming Cherry Tree

Our strategy was to start at the top of the cemetery at the Gambetta entrance and then work our way down the hill to the main entrance. We found Oscar Wilde and Gertrude Stein first. Last time I was at the cemetery, the plexiglass around Wilde's tomb was covered in bright lipstick kisses (gross!) because he once wrote, "A kiss may ruin a human life." It was a problem with people kissing the stone because it was eating away at it so they put up plexiglass in 2011 to protect it. But people just kissed the plexiglass. This time there was a sign stating that the family pays for cleaning and that seems to have taken care of the problem. I only saw one lipstick kiss this time.

Oscar Wilde

Gertrude Stein

Gretrude Stein was an American writer and art collector in Paris. She moved to Paris in 1903 and she and her brother established a salon for writers and artists. She bought Post-Impressionist art and was a friend to Picasso and Matisse, and the expat writers such as Hemingway and Faulkner in Paris after World War I. Her tomb is covered with pebbles and rocks, a Jewish tradition and symbol of remembrance.
There were so many other interesting graves along the walk. Some had great planters filled with flowers. Others had interesting shapes or interesting engravings or looked like Roman ruins.

Built-in planter with flowers

Engraving of Dirigible above the grave

Another area had many memorials for those killed in concentration camps in World War II.

Memorial for children assassinated by
the Nazis in the Holocaust

Memorial to Victims who died
in the Ravensbruck camp

We found Edith Piaf's grave. She was called the "Little Sparrow." She is the one who sang "La Vie en Rose" that Shauna's dad Gary sang at her mother Katherine's funeral. We had a hard time finding the grave of the artist Modigliani. It was a little off the beaten path. But there always seemed to be friendly people who were glad to help us.

Edith Piaf

Modigliani

Another artist we stumbled on was Gericault. His grave had his paintings in the Louvre engraved on the sides including The Raft of the Medusa.

Gericault

We passed a recent grave that looked interesting. As I studied it, I realized that it was the grave of "Tignous," one of the cartoonists that was killed in the terrorist attack at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015. We were so happy to see some glimpses of blue sky as we walked around the cemetery. But the blue sky would be followed by a bit a drizzle. Typical Paris spring weather.

"Tignous"

 

Shauna at the Casimir Perier
Roundabout

While looking for Chopin's grave, I found the grave of a pianist from Japan named Ken Sasaki. Todd went to Japan on his mission and he knew who this famous pianist was. Sasaki and a couple of partners started the Kawai piano company. Chopin is buried without his heart. His heart is buried in his native Poland.

Saski

Chopin

Todd was excited to find the grave of the iconic Jim Morrison, lead vocalist of the Doors rock group. He died in 1971 in Paris. This grave has been vandalized over the years and it was the only one blocked off by some fencing on both sides.

Jim Morrison

Peeking out from behind
Jim Morrison's tomb

The Robertson Grave is very famous and also creepy. He was a physicist and a hot air baloonist, and was also a stage magician who was into the occult. There are bats on the top corners, a scene of the Last Judgment and skulls.

Robertson Tomb

The Last Judgment

After our stroll through the cemetery, we took the bus to the Marais and saw one of the oldest buildings in Paris. Then we walked across to Île Saint Louis seeing the Panthéon on the hill in the distance.

Half Timber buildings in the Marais

Bridge towards the Panthéon

We had lunch at the St. Regis Café on Île Saint Louis, one of our favorites. Todd claimed the French onion soup was the best he'd had and I loved the risotto with tiger shrimp. Then we walked across the bridge to Île de la Cité.

St. Regis Café

Hôtel de Ville
across the Seine

We walked around Nôtre Dame to see if there was any progress in taking down the twisted scaffolding from the fire in April. It looks like things are moving very slowly.

 

Nôtre Dame

We finished the afternoon with a stop at our favorite crêpe stand at Odéon. They make the best crêpes. So yummy! It's so fun roaming Paris with Shauna and Todd.

Anxiously awaiting Todd's crêpe

Shauna with her Banane and Nutella Crêpe
Todd with Jambon Fromage