Père Lachaise Cemetery

Père Lachaise is a working cemetery that became a destination because its managers marketed it. It opened in 1804 in the 20th arrondissement, out beyond the city as it then was, and Parisians refused to be buried so far from town: there were 13 graves at the end of its first year. In 1817 the administrators moved in the remains of Molière and Jean de La Fontaine, and those said to be of Pierre Abélard and Héloïse d'Argenteuil. It worked. By 1830 there were more than 33,000 graves. Open daily with seasonal gate hours, generally 08:00-17:30 weekdays, 08:30 Saturday and 09:00 Sunday, later in summer. An accessible route serves principal lower or public areas, but stairs, historic fabric or summit routes limit the complete circuit. Open daily with seasonal gate hours, generally 08:00-17:30 weekdays, 08:30 Saturday and 09:00 Sunday, later in summer. Cemetery entry is free. An accessible route serves principal lower or public areas, but stairs, historic fabric or summit routes limit the complete circuit. Metro Père Lachaise, Philippe Auguste or Gambetta serves different gates. Yes. Worship, events, maintenance, weather and security can change ordinary access. No. Special tours, exhibitions and upgrades use separate tickets. Open daily with seasonal gate hours, generally 08:00-17:30 weekdays, 08:30 Saturday and 09:00 Sunday, later in summer. Cemetery entry is free. An accessible route serves principal lower or public areas, but stairs, historic fabric or summit routes limit the complete circuit. Metro Père Lachaise, Philippe Auguste

Forty-four hectares of cobbled avenues on a hill, and the graves people come for. Chopin and Bizet among the composers; Balzac, Proust and Oscar Wilde among the writers; Sarah Bernhardt and Jim Morrison among the performers. Molière and La Fontaine are the 1817 transfers. The Communards' Wall, the Mur des Fédérés, is where 147 Communards were shot by the French Army during the Semaine sanglante in 1871, and it is still a political site rather than a historical one. The crematorium was France's first: the first cremation here was on 30 January 1889. Cemetery entry is free. Metro Père Lachaise, Philippe Auguste or Gambetta serves different gates.

Two hours, and take a map at the gate. Forty-four hectares of numbered divisions on a slope, with avenues that curve and signage that assumes you already know where you are going. Walking it without a plan is how people spend three hours and find two of the graves they wanted. A route that takes in Wilde, Chopin, Morrison and the Communards' Wall is roughly the diagonal of the cemetery and fills two hours at a reasonable pace. The hill is real and the cobbles are uneven. An accessible route serves principal lower or public areas, but stairs, historic fabric or summit routes limit the complete circuit.

Open daily with seasonal gate hours, generally 08:00-17:30 weekdays, 08:30 Saturday and 09:00 Sunday, later in summer. Metro Père Lachaise, Philippe Auguste or Gambetta serves different gates. An accessible route serves principal lower or public areas, but stairs, historic fabric or summit routes limit the complete circuit.

Cemetery entry is free. Open daily with seasonal gate hours, generally 08:00-17:30 weekdays, 08:30 Saturday and 09:00 Sunday, later in summer. An accessible route serves principal lower or public areas, but stairs, historic fabric or summit routes limit the complete circuit. Metro Père Lachaise, Philippe Auguste or Gambetta serves different gates.

Metro Père Lachaise, Philippe Auguste or Gambetta serves different gates. An accessible route serves principal lower or public areas, but stairs, historic fabric or summit routes limit the complete circuit. Open daily with seasonal gate hours, generally 08:00-17:30 weekdays, 08:30 Saturday and 09:00 Sunday, later in summer.

An accessible route serves principal lower or public areas, but stairs, historic fabric or summit routes limit the complete circuit. Open daily with seasonal gate hours, generally 08:00-17:30 weekdays, 08:30 Saturday and 09:00 Sunday, later in summer. Cemetery entry is free. An accessible route serves principal lower or public areas, but stairs, historic fabric or summit routes limit the complete circuit. Historic surfaces, crowds and security remain relevant.

The cemetery photographs as an avenue rather than as a grave. The cobbled lanes between the nineteenth-century family chapels, with the trees closing overhead, are the picture that says Père Lachaise; a single headstone rarely does. Morning light through the canopy in the older divisions is the strongest hour, and autumn gives it colour. The Communards' Wall is a plain brick wall and does not photograph as anything. Its meaning is the plaque and the flowers, so include them or leave it. Photographing funerals or mourners is not acceptable. Cemetery entry is free.