Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Pere Lachaise Cemetery: One of the most visited boneyards in the entire world.

Although our computer has not yet made it's exit from the disabled list, I thought I would take advantage of having another full-size computer available in the house to post a full size update. Amazingly, Pere Lachaise Cemetery is one of Paris' top tourist sites, but Mindy and I somehow had left it off the list until just recently as we were looking for a new adventure in the french capital.

When we arrived, we started to wander around, heading in the general direction of where we thought Jim Morrision's grave was located. I think we made it halfway there before we were beset upon by what at first appeared to be a homeless person, but actually turned out to be a self-employed tour guide. From there on out, our casual stroll became a series of shortcuts as we made our way to all the more famous gravesites.

The final resting places of the occupants of Pere Lachaise cemetery range from simple to palatial, as we saw chapels that certainly must have cost a small fortune to errect. The phrase about "not being able to take it with you" certainly came to mind, but for most of these residents, they certainly will be resting in style.

Mindy beside Vivant Denon, the first director of the Louvre museum.

The exquisite grave of Frederic Chopin.

And the simple grave of Jim Morrison.

The first grave ever placed in the cemetery was only a simple headstone, and has since been grown over by a massive tree.

Since then, some people have made sure their grave has no chance of being distubed by any force of nature.

The cemetary also has a large amount of chapels marking the final resting place of many of the occupants of Pere Lachaise.

Quite a few of them have beautiful stained glass windows.

A kiss over the grave of Victor Noir is supposed to give a couple good luck when it comes to fertility.

I made sure to get my kiss however before Mindy planted one on the grave of famed Irish poet Oscar Wilde.

Our tour guide to Pere Lachaise, showing off who he is a fan of in the boneyard.