Cimitiere du Pere-Lachaise

It may sound macabre, but today I went to visit the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, which is the largest cemetery in Paris and the final resting place of some notable folks.  The cemetery itself is a crazy and cluttered mess, which makes Paris cemeteries so interesting.

The tombs don’t all face the same way with equal spaces of grass between, but rather occupy every inch of square space possible like pieces of a puzzle, facing every which way.  There’s also an interesting mix of the old and new, again, all tossed together.  One grave can be so old that it is literally caving in and no legible words can be made out, while the one immediately next to it is the tomb of someone who died in 2005.  Anyway, saw a few interesting things today, including the grave of Jim Morrison, the lead singer of the Doors, and that of Oscar Wilde.

Oscar Wilde’s tomb has messages and kiss marks from top to bottom, and a plaque below warning that disturbing the grave in any such manner is against the law.  On the back reads the inscription “And alien tears will fill for him / Pity’s long broken urn / For his mourners will be outcast men / And outcasts always mourn.”  Despite the unheeded warning, I think the additions to the monument are the perfect homage to such a great writer.

Even more interesting however, was stumbling across the random tomb of a man named Victor Noir, a 22 year old journalist who was shot to death by Pierre Bonaparte in 1870.  The tomb has a bronze sculpture of his life-sized body as he apparently looked as he died.

A certain body part seems somewhat enlarged, if you know what I mean.  I also noticed that the lips, feet, and that particular area are completely worn smooth.  Next to the body is his top hat, which had baby booties inside.

I made a mental note to further investigate who this man was when I got home.  I will not repeat the entire story here, but urge you to read up on the death and  tomb of Victor Noir.  To this day his grave is seen by many women as a good luck charm for either fertility or finding a husband, which explains why those particular areas are worn.  In fact, some people complained that they had seen women humping the tomb.  A few years ago, a fence was erected, (no pun intended), to stop visitors from copping a feel on the statue, but amidst public outcry, it was removed soon after.  This is probably one of the most interesting and unexpected things I have found in Paris.  Who new?  I bet poor Victor had no clue what was to become of his, uh, er, legacy after he died so young.  Anyway, to round out the day Jason and I spent the evening at Disneyland because we wanted to go at least one time together.

This time I managed to finally ride Thunder Mountain Railroad, which by the way is AWESOME!  It’s not completely different from the ride in California, but the whole ride takes place on an island in a lagoon, two trains run at once, and the ride is longer with some really great effects.  We also caught the evening fireworks show.  Tomorrow I’m headed toward Versaille again with Andrea so that Nancy can check out the property.  We will not be buying tickets this time, however, but simply checking out the grounds and the lower lagoon area.  It should be a lot more enjoyable without the hours in line.  Pictures tomorrow.

This entry was posted on August 13, 2007 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.