A Visit to The Pere-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris

I know it might sound odd, but the biggest surprise on our favorite places of Paris list was the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery.  Tucked away on the edge of the 20th arrondissement, the cemetery holds the reputation of being the world's most visited--though I'm wondering how anyone could prove that.  Called "la cite des morts"--the city of the dead--by Parisians, the cemetery websites boasts that its grounds hold over a million graves.  The thing that blew me away was that cemetery plots are most commonly bought for only 30 years--after that, the cemetery can dig up the remains and sell (rent, I'd call it) the plot to someone else (but this apparently only happens if the family chooses not to renew...) The cemetery was strangely beautiful...in an eerie sort of way. We followed the map in the Rick Steves book to visit  most of the famous "resting places", including Jim Morrison, Colette, Oscar Wilde, and Chopin to name a few.  What impressed me the most was the amount of graves in the cemetery and also the splendor of so many of the mausoleums! Many of them were huge! It was an easy, yet a little long, Metro trip out to the cemetery, but well worth it in my opinion.

Center of the cemetery.  The place was HUGE!! We were there for hours and didn't even come close to covering it all.

Siblings who were still children when they died...

Jim Morrison's grave...

Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas--they are buried together

Oscar Wilde

Memorials to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust...I thought it was fitting that all of the statues were so emaciated. It was a very moving section of the cemetery. 

I loved this little series of photos that I took of the brats!

I'd love your vote--just click of the picture of the smiling mommy below to vote for my blog!