TOUR PÈRE LACHAISE CEMETERY

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TOUR PÈRE LACHAISE CEMETERY

A 2-hour walk through history, mystery, beauty and the macabre….

Johnny Paris Tours

Mar 05, 2025

Transcript

Now booking small, private tours of Père Lachaise. Contact me at paristravelguide@yahoo.com

Off the “normal” tourist maps, you will not regret spending a few hours strolling the beautiful and mysterious grounds of this iconic and historic cemetery.

Opened in 1804, it is the first and the largest of what would come to be known as “Pastoral” cemeteries, which gained in popularity in the United States before and especially during the U.S. Civil War.

Before Père Lachaise, cemeteries were little more than boneyards, and always attached to a church. This was the first municipal cemetery, and as it was not “hallowed” ground, the city found that initially, very few people wanted to be buried there.

A marketing strategy was employed by the administrators to attract people and improve the cemetery's stature.

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So, in 1817 with much publicity, they transfered of the remains of Jean de La Fontaine, author of many fables, and the French Shakespeare, Molière to Père Lachaise.

Then, again with a big splash, the remains of Pierre Abélard and Héloïse d'Argenteuil (or what was claimed to be) were transferred to the cemetery along with their monument's canopy made from fragments of the abbey of Nogent-sur-Seine.

Today, tradition has it that lovers or lovelorn singles can leave letters at their crypt, to celebrate their love, or in hopes of finding a true love.

These strategies worked and people began clamoring to be buried among the famous citizens.

Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous artists, including Miguel Ángel Asturias, Honoré de Balzac, Sarah Bernhardt, Georges Bizet, Frédéric Chopin, Colette, George Enescu, Max Ernst, Olivia de Havilland, Marcel Marceau, Georges Méliès, Amedeo Modigliani, Molière, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, Richard Wright, Jim Morrison, and Michel Petrucciani.