More than a million and a half people come to Pere-Lachaise each year, to walk its 44 hectares (nearly 109 acres) consisting of tens of thousands of monuments, many of which are dedicated to some of the world's greatest names in the arts, sciences, literature and of course history.
People from all over the world come to pay their respects, to get as close as they possibly can to figures about whom they only know through books, movies, music or legends.
For a sampling of my photos taken in Pere-Lachaise, click here!
And of course many of France's heroes (or villains) are buried here as well as many of themost beloved writers, movie stars and TV personalities.
Here's just a sampling:
Francois Poulenc, Heloise and Abelard, Camille Pissaro, Cherubini, Chopin, Breguet (yeah the watch guy), Lalique (yeah the glass guy), Michel Petrucciani, Auguste Comte, Champollion, Samuel Hahnemann, Gustave Dore, Jim Morrison, Moliere, La Fontaine, Murat, Antoine Parmentier, Sarah Bernhardt, Balzac, Delacroix, Merleau-Ponty, Georges Melies, Bizet, Marcel Proust, Apollinaire, Isadora Duncan, Stephane Grappelli, Richard Wright, Auguste Blanqui, Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, Modigliani, Edith Piaf, Colette, Oscar Wilde and scores of France's greatest military heroes, scientists, artists and literary figures as well as some of the most powerful and poignant memorials to the tens of thousands of French jews deported to Nazi death camps, virtually all of whom perished.
Directions: The cemetery can be accessed via one of two metro stops: "Gambetta" on the no. 3 line or "Pere-Lachaise" on the nos. 2 and 3.
Click here for a Google map of Pere Lachaise and its neighborhood.
If you opt for the "Gambetta" stop this will allow you to walk downhill in the cemetery. So follow the exit for the cemetery, up the escalator and then up avenue du Pere-Lachaise to the entrance. As you enter you will see the crematorium/columbarium complex straight ahead and a guard shack on your right. If you turn right up about 100 meters or so is a WC.
Alternatively you can get off at "Pere-Lachaise" and then enter the cemetery at the small entrance directly across from the entrance to the metro. It is here that you will find a vendor selling the best map available for the cemetery, the Metropolitains Edition. .
Entrances: The main entrance is located of of boulevard Menilmontant. As of this writing there are five entrances to the cemetery: three of them usually manned:
- Blvd Menilmontant (main)
- Blvd Menilmontant (Pere-Lachaise metro, unmanned)
- rue du Repos (unmanned)
- rue de la Reunion
- rue des Rondeaux
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: the conservation office is just inside the main entrance off of Blvd de Menilmontant, where you can pick up a copy of the free cemetery guidemap. There is also a manned guard shack at the entrance off of rue du Pere-Lachaise and rue des Rondeaux, and there is usually a manned guard shack on rue du Repos. There is a crematorium and columbarium in division 87.
After you enter the cemetery at the main entrance directly behind the guard shack on the left and around the corner is a bank of rustic WCs. Beyond the main entrance is the conservation where you will find a WC located on the far side of the building, across from div. 7. There are also WCs just inside the entrance off of rue des Rondeaux, the "Gambetta" stop.
Map: Guidemaps are not generally available at the guard shacks but can be picked up at the conservation office. Maps are available for sale at the florist shops and news kiosks directly outside of the entrances (rue du Pere-Lachaise and Blvd Menilmontant across from the metro Pere-Lachaise).
In my opinion, the best map is the Metropolitains Edition, which is usually available from a vendor just outside the entrance across from the Pere-Lachaise metro stop.
To download the official guidemap as a Stuffit file, click here.
Links:
Women at Pere-Lachaise, Eternelle
More women of Pere-Lachaise, Femmes
Wikipedia
GraveYart has a great interactive locator map
Pere-Lachaise.com also has a very good interactive locator map
Friends of Pere-Lachaise
Lachaise-gargl
Parisrama
Paris.org
