About Père Lachaise Cemetery
When it opened in 1804, Père-Lachaise was far out and almost nobody wanted to be buried there. The fix, in 1817, was a marketing move: transferring the remains of Molière and La Fontaine. It worked so well that today more than a million people are buried there, and there is still a waiting list for a plot.
It was the first garden cemetery in Paris, designed by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, and the visit feels more like a walk in the park than a funereal outing. Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Édith Piaf and Jim Morrison are among the most sought-after graves. At the Communards' Wall, 147 communards were shot in 1871, during the Bloody Week.
