Père Lachaise cemetery is the most prestigious and visited in Paris. Located in the 20th arrondissement, it extends over 44 acres of outstanding scenery and contains about 70,000 graves. In the largest green space in Paris are the graves of many celebrities: Balzac, Chopin, Colette, Champollion, Molière, Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, Jim Morrison, Alfred de Musset, Edith Piaf, Pissarro, Oscar Wilde, Modigliani and many others.
The cemetery is also well known because the Commune of Paris, a socialist Revolution ended right there in 1871 in horrid fightings.
Père Lachaise and Revolutionary Paris
Description
Père Lachaise cemetery and revolutionary Paris
Practical informations
- Location : Métro Père Lachaise (line 2 and 3)
- Duration : 3h
- Walk
- Private tour at any date (270€)
The Père Lachaise and Revolutionary Paris walk will take you in the east of Paris, far from touristic areas and famous landmarks. The most well known cemetery in Paris is amazing not only for unique architecture display or the famous people buried there, but also for its diversity and incomparable charm.
The design of the cemetery combines English park and Shrine. All styles of funerary art are represented: Gothic tombs, Haussmannian vaults, antique style mausoleum …
With a bucolic stroll in a very green environment full of charm, a paradise for cats, the walk will look beyond the famous men and women, at other aspects of the cemetery. Père Lachaise is indeed a multiple place where one crosses the striking memorials of people deported during World War II, leaders and great names of French communism in the 20th century, and tributes to air disasters.
Finally, the cemetery will also be an opportunity to discuss the Paris Commune as the latest fighting in the bloody week (21 to 28 May, 1871) took place here. While many of the protagonists of this dark period are buried, the famous wall of the Federated, north-east of the cemetery is the most famous track.
After a final walk through the neighborhood of Napoleon’s marshals, the tour will lead participants outside the cemetery, a backdoor and most charming exit, to a natural area, where the city of Paris invites visitors to discover an enclosed area where flore and faune are left to grow without any human intervention.
