Adventure in Père Lachaise

Jim Morrison's resting place.

On February 9, 2011, after our trip to the Cinématique Française, the group decided to pay a visit to the historic Père Lachaise cemetery, also known as ‘la cite de morts’, city of the dead. Père Lachaise is vraiment a city of its own, with old rues and elaborate sepultures. Although there are countless well-known people that are buried here, we were only interested in visiting Jim Morrison and Edith Piaf, two of the most visited tombs.  

We were pretty hyped about visiting Jim Morrison, and although we did not have an actual plan or map to guide us to his tomb, we decided to find it à l’aveuglette.  Ten minutes after we have gotten to the cemetery, some of us were lost. Professor Holly along with Brandon, Kelly, Michelle, Katy, Stephanie and I were on a mission to find Jim, and Edith.  Venturing through the streets and later near the tombs, we lost our track and decided to ask for directions. I decided to put my sketchy French to work, so I asked a random French guy for directions.  To my surprise he was able to understand me. As soon as I mentioned Jim Morrison, he responded in Anglais,  “Oh! Of course! Everyone wants to know where he lies.” We were so lucky to have found this guy. He guided us to Jim’s tomb, and later volunteered to walk us over to Madame Piaf’s grave. He literally gave us a free tour guide of the cemetery. We were amazed at all that he knew about the graves that we forgot to ask for his name.  On our way to Madame Piaf’s grave the French guy, pointing out some elaborate sepultures that belong to Dracula’s family, some Generals who fought alongside Napoleon. Although he mainly spoke to us in Anglais, he would switch to French when he had difficulty conveying a thought. We were thrilled to understand what he was saying. This guy was amazingly brilliant. His willingness to help is a quality that I have found in most French people that I have spoken to. They are friendly and embrace the fact that one tries to speak their beautiful language.