Père Lachaise Cemetery

While in Paris we did the normal tourist tours to the Louvre & Eiffel Tower but we also toured the Père Lachaise Cemetery. To me, its most notable as the burial place of Iconic Musician Jim Morrison of The Doors & Oscar Wilde.

 

Here we see the grave of Jim Morrison. I actually took a class my freshman year titled Media & Jim Morrison which was probably one of the most easy and difficult classes I had ever taken. Easy as in it was a topic I was very interested in and difficult because it dove into the intricacies of the band, Morrison and the world at that time. I recommend taking it if you ever have the chance. His grave has remained a shrine and pilgrimage of Door's fans for decades. Love letters, messages, roses and other offerings litter Jim's grave and the most warming part is that he would've wanted it that way. It was barricaded the day we visited it for reasons you can see above.

This is the tree that abuts Jim's grave. It is masked by a layer of sharpie & paint as a message board to Morrison & the band. I found it moving that so many people were touched by their music and wanted to show their gratitude for the band & what they did for the media, music industry and artists everywhere.

Lachaise is an extremely densely populated cemetary as you can see above. The cemetary was reserved for artists, poets, weathy etc. and thus many influential and well respected people are buried here. Its mind boggling when you navigate through this maze of tombs.

 Here sits the grave of Oscar Wilde. Much like Morrison's, Wilde's stone is littered with messages written in lipstick from people who love & thank him for being who he was and paving the way for so many generations to come. 

A message written on the rear of Wilde's grave.

The above images are monuments to the Holocaust. The first 2 images depict emaciated Jewish corpses as a result of being malnourished and tortured by the Nazi's. As we all know Paris was an iconic location during the war. The bottom image is a tribute to those 6M+ who lost their lives. It lists the most notorious Concentration/Work camps with Bergenbelsen lettered down the center pillar. It was a seriously paralyzing moment. And as if it was surreal enough listen to this video I shot while we were inside the cemetery.