Père Lachaise Cemetery Scavenger Hunt

What you should leave on the graves of Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Marcel Proust, Georges Méliès and others. Finding them is part of the fun.

Think of Père Lachaise Cemetery as a large park — that just so happens to have a bunch of dead people buried in it

On the first day of class, a lot of my college professors would have everyone state an interesting fact about themselves. My go-to response was, “I like to hang out in cemeteries.”

I thought it was just odd enough to make me seem mysterious and it revealed my quirky nature.

“At one point, the oversized testicles were removed, with the rumor being that the cemetery manager used them as paperweights.”

It’s also true. I’m a sucker for cemeteries, whether they’re small graveyards tucked next to a church, with moldering tombstones or grand affairs with elaborate statues like the Cimiterio Monumentale I stumbled upon in Milan, Italy.

I’m a cemetery aficionado, a connoisseur, if you will. And hands down, there’s one cemetery that beats out all competitors: Père Lachaise in Paris, France.

Jim Morrison’s grave is barricaded off. Apparently his fans can be a bit unruly and destructive to other tombs

It’s no surprise that Père Lachaise is said to be the most visited cemetery in the world. Situated in Paris’ 20th arrondissement, the necropolis is named for Father François d’Aix de La Chaise, who heard the many confessions of King Louis XIV.

There are 70,000-some graves packed into the 109 acres, many of them of famous individuals of all stripes. It became a scavenger hunt of sorts to use the map to try to locate particular graves — and once you find them, you realize many have a certain way people pay tribute to the ghosts of these great men and women.  

The iconic shot from Mélièrs’ A Trip to the Moon

WHO: Georges Mélièrs, 1861-1938

FAMOUS FOR: Helping create the birth of cinema

WHAT TO LEAVE: Film canisters or something photography-related

Our first stop was at Méliers’ grave. He’s famous for A Trip to the Moon — you might have seen the iconic image of a rockship that lands in the eye of the Man in the Moon. The gorgeous and magical movie Hugo is a worthy tribute to Mélièrs.

This was our first hint at how difficult finding particular graves can be. We were sure we were in the right spot, but just couldn’t find Mélièrs’ tombstone. A nice older gentleman must have known what we were looking for — he came over and pointed down into a mass of tombstones. I spoke with him briefly in French. We realized the grave was a couple of rows deep on a narrow side path.

“There goes the stereotype of French people being rude,” Duke said. 

We still couldn’t find a way down into the depths, but then we saw a couple coming up the hill from the main road, like the entrance to a secret passage.

Leave something photo- or film-related on Mélièrs’ grave — or just a note

Wally’s note reads, “Thanks for all the magic!”

One never knows when some graveyard dirt will come in handy

Oscar Wilde, the dandy himself

WHO: Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900

FAMOUS FOR: Writer (The Portrait of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest), witticist, gay pioneer

WHAT TO LEAVE: A lipstick kiss

Wilde had some great lines. My personal favorite has always been: “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”

His grave is one of the more interesting ones at Père Lachaise. Part of the Art Deco stone monolith is an angular angel, with massive wings and anatomically correct privates. At one point, the oversized testicles were removed, with the rumor being that the cemetery manager used them as paperweights.

In the 1990s, a new tradition started: People would leave lipstick kisses on Wilde’s grave. It’s a sweet idea, and one I think Wilde himself would approve of. But the cemetery staff kept cleaning them off, which was causing irreparable damage.

So, in 2011, a glass wall was erected around the grave. So you can leave a kiss for Wilde — without damaging his tomb.

I didn’t happen to have any lipstick, so I wrote him a nice note and left that instead.

Even with a glass barrier, people still find ways to kiss Wilde’s grave. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind

Wally is wild about Wilde

Édith Piaf

WHO: Édith Piaf, 1915-1963

FAMOUS FOR: Songstress (“La Vie en Rose”)

WHAT TO LEAVE: Roses

You’ll have to hunt for a grave marked, “Famille Gassion-Piaf.” I didn’t have any flowers, so I tried to draw one on a note I left on her tomb.

Not Wally’s best work, but he wanted to offer Piaf a flower of sorts

Marcel Proust

WHO: Marcel Proust, 1871-1922

FAMOUS FOR: Writer (In Search of Lost Time)

WHAT TO LEAVE: Métro ticket stubs

I couldn’t find anything about why people decided to start leaving subway ticket stubs. I could make up some bullshit about the subway trains symbolizing the passage of time — but it was probably the only thing a tourist had in their pocket, others followed suit, and a tradition was born.

These were the main graves we left tributes on. There are plenty of other celebrities’ graves to hunt down at Père Lachaise. When in doubt, bring a pad of paper and write a note about how the person touched your life. Or start your own tradition.

If you’ve never spent an afternoon wandering through a cemetery, Père Lachaise is a great place to start. You’re sure to be converted. It might sound creepy, but it’s really not. Maybe it even helps us, in some small way, accept the inevitability of death. –Wally

Les Portes de Paris – The Doors of Paris

If you’re one of those people who love pictures of doors, come right in.

 

You’ve seen the posters. They show pictures of doors found throughout a particular city.

What is it about doors that so peaks our interest? Doors simultaneously close you off and welcome you in. There’s a sense of mystery surrounding them: What world will you discover once you cross the threshold?

As we wandered around Paris, Duke periodically snapped pics of doors. In lieu of making our own poster, here’s a sampling of some of the most stylish doors of a stylish city. 

While doors are lovely and all, Duke and I much prefer to take photos of the stray cats found throughout a city. They’ve got more personality. –Wally

Gruesome Facts (and Helpful Tips) About the Paris Catacombs

No bones about it: If you think piles of skulls and hallways formed of bones are pretty effin’ cool (like us), then the Catacombs of Paris are for you.

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The bones of about 7 million Parisians were relocated and stacked artistically in the Catacombs below the city

Wally’s parents don’t share our morbid curiosity about death. So there were a couple things we had to hit before they arrived: one being Père Lachaise Cemetery, and the other being the Catacombs.

The Catacombs are an underground ossuary (literally “bone receptacle”), said to contain the remains of 7 million or so Parisians.

“It took over 15 months to relocate the bones of an estimated 7 million Parisians from local cemeteries. ”

Get there early.

Our friends Kent and Michael had advised us to get there right at opening. There’s usually a long wait, as they only permit a limited number of visitors in at a time.

We were both hungry that morning, but because we had woken up later than we intended to (damn jet lag), we decided not to stop for breakfast — we were not going to miss the Catacombs.
 

Grab breakfast nearby.

We took the 88 bus to les Catacombes. The line that had formed was already around the block and longer than the previous day. I held our place in line while Wally sought out coffee and something for us to eat.

Across the street, he found a Paul, a chain of pâtisseries and boulangeries that serves a surprisingly good breakfast. That day he got us two cafés crèmes and jambon and brie sandwiches on crusty baguettes.

People-watch and admire the nearby statue to kill time in line.

A tot in a bright orange corduroy coat ahead of us was finding it difficult to wait in line and wandered away from her parents, the hurried footsteps of her father not far behind. She paused to entertain a couple of water bottle vendors by imitating the nearby Lion of Belfort statue, which our friend Kent has dubbed Aslan, from the Chronicles of Narnia. The little girl raised both her tiny hands and roared, which made us and the vendors laugh.

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The entrance to the Catacombs is marked with an inscription that translates to “Stop! Here lies the Empire of Death”

Don't Stop! Here Lies the Empire of Death

We entered the dark green building located at Place Denfert-Rochereau, paid our admission and descended the spiral staircase 60 feet beneath the streets of Paris.

One of the first things we encountered on our exploration was a rock-cut palace chiseled from memory between 1777-1782 by a quarry inspector who had served time in a prison situated across from it. According to the sign next to the sculpture he died from a “cave-in while trying to build an access stairway at this location.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if he had been added to the crypt we were about to explore.

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Isn't it strange how similar "la morte" (death) and "l'amour" (love) are in French?

Poor Souls

Most of the disinterred bones are from the Cimetière des Innocents in Paris. It was the chosen local burial ground, as the site had been consecrated with a handful of dirt from the Holy Land.

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This sign shows that most of the remains in the Catacombs came from the Cemetery of the Innocents and were moved in the 1700s

So numerous was the quantity of burials there, that most were interred in large open pits that were covered over when full. Once these were overflowing, the exhumed bones were stored within arcades around the perimeter of the cemetery.

In an effort to reduce the risk of fatal disease caused by bacteria spread from the putrefying remains, Alexandre Lenoir, the Lieutenant-General of Police, proposed that the remains be stored and placed in the abandoned subterranean limestone quarries beneath Paris. Stone from these mines was used in the construction of both the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral.

Even though the Catacombs were not affiliated with a particular church, they were still considered a consecrated site. The bones had been transferred from respective cemeteries led by clergy, who performed benediction rites upon them.

It took over 15 months to relocate the bones of an estimated 7 million Parisians from Les Innocents and other local cemeteries. The remains were dropped down chutes by night to workers, who stowed them away in the passageways.

Skulls, femur and tibia bones were packed high and tight, some up to 10 feet deep. The Catacombs are just a small part of the quarries, which date back to Roman times. The bones reinforce these mines, which had been known to collapse, taking the buildings above down with them.

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One part of the Paris Catacombs is covered in graffiti scratches. (Did you hear something behind us?)

Famous Residents

Among these are the remains of Charles Perrault, the author of the Tales of Mother Goose, architect Solomon de Brosse (who designed the city's Luxembourg Palace) as well as a few poor souls who lost their heads to the guillotine.

Napoleon, wishing to outdo the ancient Catacombs of Rome, allowed Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury, Inspector-General of Quarries, to elaborately rearrange the site, resulting in an impressive if macabre monument.

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Duke’s only pretending to be scared. He loved exploring the Catacombs

Plaques were placed throughout the passages noting from which cemetery the remains were taken. Some inscriptions came from classical sources, others from sacred texts. A biblical passage in Latin — “Memento Creatoris tui in diebus juventutis tuae antequàm veniat tempus afflictionís” — translates to "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come."

During World War II, the tunnels were used by Parisian members of the French Resistance.

The chamber containing the Rotonde des Tibias in particular was thought to have impressive acoustics, and in 1871 it hosted a 45-member orchestra playing Chopin's funeral march.

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Because the guards stagger groups who can enter at a time, we found we mostly had the tunnels to ourselves, which allowed Wally to get up to his usual antics

It had rained recently, and some sections of the tunnels were dripping, rendering the floor beneath them wet. We heard that the Catacombs close when there’s been a bad storm because they get flooded.

At the end of the adventure — Wally kept saying it was like real-life Dungeons & Dragons, sans the dragons — there's a table where they go through your bags. Apparently, there's a large number of people who try to steal a skull or bone.

No one was stationed at the table when we left, so of course Wally was bummed we could have gotten away with pilfering a skull or two.

Arriving back at the Métro, I had to hop the turnstile, as my ticket didn't validate. My novice technique was not graceful — the space is limited once you hop said turnstile and proceed to squeeze through the half-door behind it. But having seen numerous kids do so, I felt I was now a true Parisien. –Duke

“At the end, there’s a table where they go through your bags. Apparently, there’s a large number of people who try to steal a skull or bone.”

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READ MORE ABOUT PARIS

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If you’re interested in this subject, check out the gorgeous book The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses by Paul Koudounaris.

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