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Anybody who wants to visit a graveyard, raise your hand..... We thought so. But, you don't have to because we went and we can tell you all about it. As it turns out, Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Paris, and it's only 1.3 miles east of our apartment- a fast bus ride. There is an impressive list of famous people who are buried there including Balzac, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, Bizet, Chopin, Rossini, Maria Callas, Edith Piaf, Isadora Duncan, Modigliani, Rene Lalique, Max Ernst, Delacroix, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, and Sarah Bernhardt.
But, the most interesting to many people is Jim Morrison of the rock group, The Doors ("Don't You Love Her Madly"). He moved to Paris in 1971 and died here, probably of a drug overdose, on 7/3/71, at the age of just 27. For all our Florida friends, you might be interested to know that he was born in Melbourne, FL, his father being a career U.S. Navy officer who was stationed there. He was actually a Nole (Florida State Univ. Seminole) for his freshman year, where he made the dean's list. He then transferred to UCLA to study film, but developed a deep interest in poetry. He graduated from UCLA in 1965, and said that he would have dropped out, but was afraid of being drafted and sent to Viet Nam.
We read that Jim Morrison's grave is the most visited at the Cimetiere. It's very hard to read the map of grave sites in this huge graveyard, but we eventually found it, and there were about a dozen people there, snapping photos just like us. The photo accompanying this blog entry is of his grave, which is wedged in between a few others. You can see more photos by clicking on "Photos"
The cemetery is very large and hilly, with lots of mature trees thoughout. We enjoyed seeing the changing colors of the autumn leaves, a sight we don't have in Florida. Some of the graves are relatively small and simple, and many are large and ornate family mausoleums. Some are very well maintained, and others are very old and crumbling. It appears to be mostly Christian, but we saw many Jewish graves and many Asian graves, although we don't know their religions.
The only other really famous grave we saw was that of Frederic Chopin, the great Polish composer. We shot a few photos for you to see. We didn't know what to expect, since we have never visited a cemetery before, except for personal reasons. Seeing one this way, especially such a beautiful and historic one on a gorgeous autumn day in Paris, was really very enjoyable.
Here's wishing all of our cemetery visits are as tourists,
R&S
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