Pere Lachaise
The Père Lachaise Cemetery, one of the most famous in the world, is located in the XXth district, at the Eastern side of Paris. With its 44 hectares, it is the biggest cemetery of the capital. Receiving millions of visitors each year, is the most visited location in Paris after Notre-Dame, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.
The terrain, property of the Jesuits, was occupied during the XVIIth century by François d'Aix de La Chaise, nicknamed 'Père La Chaise' and confessor of Louis XIV. Given to the 'Mairie de Paris' (the 'Council of Paris') when Napoleón Bonaparte, as consul, created several cemeteries in the city, it became the 'Cimetière de l'est de Paris' in 1804. Conceived by the neoclassical architect Alexandre Brongniart, author also of the 'Palais Brongniart' (the old Paris Stock Exchange), this 'garden for the death' is both a stylish monument and an open air museum of the funeral arts. It counts with 70 000 graves, 30 000 of them classed as historic monuments.
This cemetery is, in short, unique with its romantic and shady pathways and remarkable tombs decorated, in some occasions, with sculptures. Visitors may discover the resting place of many an illustrious person : Molière, Jean de La Fontaine, Honoré de Balzac, Chopin, Guillaume Apollinaire, Eugène Delacroix, Marcel Proust, Sarah Bernhardt, Édith Piaf and, of course, Jim Morrison. The funerary monument of Oscar Wilde, which was treated with a little too much devotion by some fans, has been recently renovated. The park in the entirety, made in the English style, and with its 5 300 trees, is also the biggest green spot of Paris.
Pariscityvision.com proposes you lunch at the Eiffel Tower in the tour Visit Paris on foot and by boat as, formerly, Oscar Wilde used to do it.