Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise
Today we hopped on the Metro and headed out to Pere Lachaise Cemetery for a nice little picnic with the dead folks. I am lucky to have Robbie as a tour guide (my first time in Paris - but his awesome Grandmere et Grandpere took him twice as a child) he takes me to all the coolest spots.
Pere Lachaise will definitely blow you away if you've never been - it's enormous and all the tombs, crypts, whathaveyou are exquisite! It is HUGE - goes on and on, and I think it would take at least a 2-day trip to fully appreciate it all.
Some history:
Pere Lachaise is Paris' most prestigious cemetery, set on a wooded hillside overlooking the city. It was once owned by Misetr Lachaise (Louis XIV's confessor) but in 1803 Napoleon ordered it laid out as a new cemetery. It became so popular with the bourgeoisie that it was expanded 6 times.
Some famous corpses takin' a dirt nap there:
Oscar Wilde
Jim Morrison
Sarah Bernhardt
Marcel Proust
Honore de Balzac
Frederic Chopin
Delacroix
Pissarro
Modigliani
And the tragic lovers Abelard and Heloise, for their story:
>http://historymedren.about.com/library/weekly/aa020500a.htm
Also went by the famous Opera House (ala Phantom of the Opera) C'est tre magnifique! (the first picture listed)
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