Travel guide
about France

Skulls were used for decoration in walls of bones. Behind these walls, smaller bones were dumped.

The most famous cemetery of France is Pere Lachaise (8 BD de Menilmontant and 16 Rue du Repos, 20^th arrondissement). To find here is the largest collection of graves of the famous and the rich. Among many, many others, you'll find the tombs of Edith Piaff, Jim Morrison and Frederic Chopin. Also to be found: the famous Parisian city developer baron Hausmann, poet Oscar Wilde and doctor Guillotin, who invented the guillotine.
This cemetery is 900 years old. Countless monuments testify of this history. There may be more cemeteries where so many people found there last resting place, but most probably there isn't any where was shed so much blood. Back in 1871 a revolution by anarchists was beaten down, costing 1.000 human lives.
Nowadays, things are a lot more peaceful. Lovers and bird watchers find Pere Lachaise to be a real Eden, while tourists also love the view at the city from the cemetery. The cemetery is 47 hectares large, but there's absolutely no reason to get lost. At the entrances and in flower shops in the neighbourhood you can get real handy maps.

Tranquillity is not found everywhere at Montmartre Cemetery (20 Avenue Rachel, 18^th arr.) the Rue Caulincourt goes on viaduct, literally just above lots of tombs.
After the 1789 revolution a mass grave was made here for the countless victims of the riots, among whom a few members of the Swiss Guard. Among the other 'resting people' at Montmartre are the composers Berlioz and Offenbach, female singer Dalida and Dutch painter Ary Scheffer. Writer Emile Zola (who made public the Deyfuss scandal) was buried here too. The tomb is still there, but his body was moved to the Pantheon a few years later.

The Cemetery of Montparnasse (3 Boulevard Edgar-Quinet, 14^th arr.) , 200 years of age, counts at least 1.200 trees at a surface of 19 hectares. They make this cemetery a green lung. This lung is very important to the city.
The structure of this cemetery is a lot more symmetric, not to say boring. Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir share a grave here. Sculptor Zadkine and poet Beaudelaire lay at Montparnasse and let's not forget writer Samuel Becketts tomb.

Picpus (35 Rue de Picpus, 12^th arr.) is a very special cemetery. In 1794, over here the French buried 1.300 people who were beheaded during the Robespierre terror. The guillotine was a few steps away, at a square that's now called Nation. The victims were dumped in two massa graves.
This small cemetery is also known to be very chic. Walking along the graves is like reading a who-is-who of French nobility. However, most names will mean nothing to foreigners.

The Catacombs (1 Place Denfert-Rochereau, 14^th remind us at the period around 1800. In the fast growing city the cemeteries weren't what you would call healthy places. Many diseases were spread just there. City counsel decided to clear these cemeteries. Bones and skulls were moved to old sandstone quarries. They're still there, in miles of underground passages that are adorned with grave aphorisms.
A small part of these passages can be visited nowadays. The entrance is located at Place Denfert-Rochereau, next to the underground station with the same name in Montparnasse. After a stairs of 130 steps and a small photo exhibition the visitor enters a mile long narrow passage, part of which leads through the ossuary. Nevertheless, the path gives a pretty good idea of the huge amount of bones and skulls. Making photographs using flash light is forbidden, out of respect for the deceased.
Clearly, this isn't a trip for disabled or claustrophobic people. On the other hands, for adventurers the visit might be not exciting enough. They will prefer to visit the non disclosed rest of the Catacombs. There are several lists of entrances to be found on the World Wide Web.
Pro: they don't have to wait in waiting lines and they see much more. That is, if they bring good torches with them. For example, lots of sculptures have been made in the sandstone. Other illegal visitors have left several paintings, some of them of surprising quality. Against: It's illegal and might be a bit dangerous.