ParisEncore: ~Two Paris Cemeteries~

Paris has about 19 cemeteries that can be visited. Pere Lachaise is the largest and the most famous; Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Bizet, Chopin, Gertrude Stein and Jim Morrison, just to name a handful. We visited Montmartre cemetery last year. This time we chose Montparnesse and Passy Cemeteries.

Beside being very quiet and serene places, I love to walk around and see all beautiful and unusual grave markers. Some of the gravesites are quite grand with huge monuments, some have small chapels that look like telephone booths, while some have simply adorned headstones. I also find it interesting that so many famous people are buried in Paris.

In the 19th century, Napoleon I ordered that all the Paris cemeteries were to be replaced with larger ones outside of the city; thus, Pere-Lachaise in the west, Montparnesse in the south, Montmartre in the north and Passy in the east were built.

Passy Cemetery sits on a hill near the Trocodero, in the 16th arr. in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
The retaining wall is adorned with a bas-relief sculpture commemorating the soldiers who died in World War I.

Passy is not far from the Eiffel Tower.

One the small chapels. This one was particularly beautiful with

wrought iron doors and stained glass windows.

The bronze stands out among the granite, marble and limestone.

Some of the monuments are quite grand and stand above all others.

All faiths and nationalities are found here. While there are strict rules regarding who can be interred, if you lived or died in France you can request to be buried here.

(There is a waiting list at Pere-Lachaise)

The ivy covered cross stood out among the rest.

What I find most unusual are all the sculpted decorative mementos that can be left (attached) on a grave. The flower wreaths are popular ( see the next photo). Sometimes there are small plaques, left by friends or family, with inscriptions attached to the grave .

This was a mausoleum; there was a circular stairway leading down and different family member's names at intervals on the wall. The "T" on the gate was for Tallyrand.

(I could not verify whether it was "the" Tallyrand.)

Some of the mini chapels are the most beautiful because they often have stained glass windows.
This one was very well cared for; others are full of leaves and spider webs.

I did not find Claude Debussy or Edouard Manet but this is Bao Dai, the last emperor of Vietnam.

Montparnesse Cemetery is the second largest in Paris.
The cemetery is divided into 2 areas; the grand and the petit. Even with a map, it was hard to find anybody.

Aristide Boucicaut, founder of Le Bon Marche, the first grand magasin (department store) in Paris.

I thought this odd with the skull and crossbones wrought iron railing.

Perhaps an artist.

A couple of the tall chapel-like graves.

It appears that Ricardo was loved by many; friends attached this inscription which
said, "you made us happy with your smile and you will always be remembered".

There was no name or date that we could find on this gravesite.
Such an unusual headstone.

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir

The American actress, Jean Seberg.

Another distinctive monument.

I wonder what this sculpture was meant to represent.

Many graves had stones left on them, as tokens of remembrance...

these were oyster shells~a fisherman?

A jockey?

These hands were enormous and could not be missed.

Beautiful planted area in the center of the grand area of the cemetery.

I can't tell you how many times we walked around this area

before we found this~Camille Saint-Saens.

To me, this was bizarre. What is the idea here?

Alfred Dreyfuss

Guy de Maupassant, a favorite writer. I had a hard time locating this one also. I think you can see how close the sites are; the map was rather elementary and vague.