Montparnasse is totally flat, and laid out more or less in a grid pattern making it quite easy to navigate through the various divisions.
Stop at the guard shack or the conservation office to pick up a copy of the cemetery guide map (or print it out via the free download link below).
Some of the more notable burials here include: Susan Sontag, Camille Saint-Saens, Alfred Dreyfus, Andre Citroen, Cesar Franck, Guy de Maupassant, the sculptor Constantin Brancusi (and you can see one of his pieces over a grave in division 19 petit), Jean Seberg, Charles Baudelaire, Philippe Noiret, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir together.
To see a couple of dozen of my favorite burial sites in Montparnasse, click here!
(At nearby Denfert-Rochereau you can also find the famous Paris "catacombs" where the bones of millions of anonymous Parisians, which were removed from numerous cemeteries around Paris at the end of the 18th century, are presently on "display".)
Directions: Located at 3 boulevard Edgar Quinet. To reach the cemetery by metro take the number 6 line. You can get off at Rapsail and exit onto Blvd Quinet and look for rue Emile Richard on your left directly behind the shops and cafe on your left. About 50 meters or so down rue Richard you can enter the
petit on your left or the
grand cemetery on your right.
Alterenatively, you can get off the no. 6 at Quinet and exit onto Blvd Quinet and the cemetery will be just across the street on your right. Walk up Quinet a couple of hundred meters and the main entrance is on your right.
Entrances: There are four entrances to the grand cemetery and two to the petit. For the grand cemetery the main entrance is at 3 Boulevard Edgar Quinet (who is buried in division 11) There are two entrances off rue Emile Richard and a fourth off rue Froidevaux. The two entrances to the petit cemetery are directly opposite the entrances to the grand on rue Emile Richard.
Hours:
From November 6-March 15
- Monday-Friday: 8:00-5:30 p.m.
Saturday: 8:30-5:30
Sunday and holidays: 9:00-5:30 p.m.
From March 16-November 5
- Monday-Friday: 8:00-6:00 p.m.
Saturday: 8:30-6:00 p.m.
Sunday and holidays: 9:00-6:00p.m.
Note that cemeteries, like the parks of Paris are always closed during high wind alerts.
Facilities: There is a guard entrance at eachof the four entrances of the grand cemetery and they usually have guidemaps available. The conservation office is just insdie the main entrance in the large building on the left as you enter the cemetery. There are WCs located near the main entrance just opposite the conservation office (and behind the guard shack) and another WC off of the southern entrance on rue Emile Richard. There are no guard shacks or WCs in the petit cemetery.
Map (right-click or control-click to save the image to your desktop) and for the official guidemap, click here!
Links:
Les cimetieres
Wikipedia
Insecula
GraveYart has a very nice interactive locator map
