Graffitti on the tomb of Oscar Wilde The most horrifyingly interesting place in Paris could be mistaken for an ancient town fortress – 100 acres surrounded by a massive wall with only two entrances, narrow lanes twisting among thousands of ancient trees, and a population of over 70,000…all dead. Linda and I took bus 69 from the Bastille to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery on a bright sunny day in August. We walked through the graves, tombs, monuments, crematoriums, chapels, caretakers, and tourists for four hours.

The most popular inhabitants were Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) and Jim Morrison (1943–1971). The sign on

Wilde’s tomb, “ Respect the

memory of Oscar Wilde and

do not deface this tomb. It is

protected by law as an historic

monument and was

The tomb of Chopin is well–maintained.

restored in 1992,” was clearly not obeyed. Even as we silently honored the writer who was martyred for homosexuality, women knelt down and kissed his tomb, and men left handwritten notes under stones.

The small non– descript

grave of the famous Light My

Fire Doors rocker, James Douglas Morrison, was adorned with flowers and framed messages from his fans. Inscribed on the headstone in Greek are the words

that mean To The Demon

Within. Young people adorned with tattoos and multi–colored hair puffed on small brown cigarettes and sobbed. Not–so–young people wandered around the grave whispering things like “He rang my bell at the Dead Rock Star Hotel,” and “Do you think he really died of an overdose in the bathtub?”

The monument to the victims of Buchenwald– Dora is a shocker. Linda had to see Chopin’s (1810–1848) grave, one of her music masters. The Polish pianist had his own caretaker who took hundreds of flowers from worshippers and placed them carefully around his monument. There was a relief of Chopin on his tomb that contains his body but not his heart which is in Warsaw. Upon seeing this, Linda said, “On his deathbed, Chopin said, ‘The earth is suffocating. Swear to make them cut me open so that I won’t be buried alive.’ This is probably why they took his heart to Poland.”

We walked and walked, consumed in the strange silence in the middle of Paris noise, passing many we recognized among the permanent residents. Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) was an American who took up with Alice B. Toklas in Paris and wrote Alice’s autobiography. Edith Piaf (1915–1963) was raised in Paris, became known as The Little Sparrow,

The tomb of Oscar Wilde

had an affair with Yves Montand (who is also here with his other lover, Simone Signoret),

sang La Vie en Rose

during WWII, and died of alcoholism. Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868) composed

the Barber of Seville

and the Lone Ranger Theme.

There were many more such as Moliere, Sarah Bernhardt, and the monk Abelard. Most shocking, however, were monuments to victims of the Holocaust.

As we left the peaceful eternity of Pere Lachaise, a beautiful Mercedes hearse was bringing in a new resident and the first flowers to decorate his new home.
Rossini wrote the Wil l iam Tel l Overture, which is best known as the Lone Ranger Theme.
The marker to the victims of Auschwitz III says, Never Again.
A new resident of Pere Lachaise moves in.
The grave of Jim Morrison of the Doors