This is a delightful homage to the world’s most famous—and most visited—cemetery. The author is the son and grandson of men who created funeral monuments. He went to law school in Paris and is now the Curator, living at the cemetery with his family. Père-Lachaise was built in 1804, the first cemetery constructed pursuant to new rules promulgated by Napoleon. It was landscaped and designed with individual burial plots arranged in rows like city streets. It was expanded in the mid–19th century to 110 acres. A 2011 law proscribed pesticides, and it has been re-wilding for more than a decade. During Covid, foxes were sighted there for the first time in memory and now live in a small community in one of its quietest corners. It has also become a major bird-sighting venue, featuring dozens of species that nest there. The three million visitors who come annually visit the gravesites of Frédéric Chopin, Édith Piaf, Molière, Oscar Wilde, Modigliani, Seurat, Marcel Proust, and, of course, the most visited of them all—Jim Morrison. Today, there are 1,000 interments, 1,300 ash scatterings, and 550 sets of ashes placed in columbariums. The theme of this book is that it is a special place shared by the dead and the living.
This is a delightful homage to the world’s most famous—and most visited—cemetery. The author is the son and grandson of men who created funeral monuments. He went to law school in Paris and is now the Curator, living at the cemetery with his family. Père-Lachaise was built in 1804, the first cemetery constructed pursuant to new rules promulgated by Napoleon. It was landscaped and designed with individual burial plots arranged in rows like city streets. It was expanded in the mid–19th century to 110 acres. A 2011 law proscribed pesticides, and it has been re-wilding for more than a decade. During Covid, foxes were sighted there for the first time in memory and now live in a small community in one of its quietest corners. It has also become a major bird-sighting venue, featuring dozens of species that nest there. The three million visitors who come annually visit the gravesites of Frédéric Chopin, Édith Piaf, Molière, Oscar Wilde, Modigliani, Seurat, Marcel Proust, and, of course, the most visited of them all—Jim Morrison. Today, there are 1,000 interments, 1,300 ash scatterings, and 550 sets of ashes placed in columbariums. The theme of this book is that it is a special place shared by the dead and the living.
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