Tales from a Crypt Walker

There’s a first time for everything and the weekend I went to Paris was full of them. It was my first time in Paris. Nicole’s first ride on the Eurostar. My first ride on a funicular. And my first time playing tourist in a cemetery. The Père Lachaise Cemetery is a located on the outskirts of Paris. It’s in a rather non-descript area of the city and looks kind of run down.

The Père Lachaise Cemetery

We don’t usually hang out in cemeteries, so you’re probably wondering why we did, especially in Paris. But it’s packed with celebrities. Literally. We were doing some star gazing, or at least gazing at their graves. Even in the middle of the day, with people all around, cemeteries are still creepy.

Jim Morrison's grave

Edith Piaf, pride of France

Irish author Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde, I don't understand the kisses

Surrounded by celebrities,
here is one of many memorials to the Holocaust

Composer Chopin

Coincidentally, it seems being around dead people was a theme in Paris. Aside from Napoleon and those in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, we visited the Panthéon which holds some of France’s most celebrated thinkers, politicians and scientists.


They say Americans are the most gratuitous flag waivers and blatant nationalists, but I think the French could give those Yanks a run for their money. The Panthéon used to be a church, which is a good indication of the reverence this country shows these men and women.

Inside the Panthéon,

That circular thing in the middle proves the Earth's rotation

While it was really cool seeing "the places they were interned," it was also incredibly creepy. For one thing, the entry to the crypt contains an urn with the heart of a former PM of France. That sets the stage for what is to come. That is, several large halls full of empty rooms in the crypts just waiting for the next great Frenchmen to die. Let me tell you, I don't envy them. These are some pretty big shoes to fill.

The graves of Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau. Both famous French philosophers of the Enlightenment era . Rivals in real life, their final resting places are facing each other. I don't know if that's ironic, funny or respectful or insensitive.

Victor Hugo, author of "the Hunchback of Notre Dame"

Alexandre Dumas, author of the "Three Musketeers"

The crypt that contains Hugo and Dumas

The Curies.
Marie Curie, the chemist, is the only woman buried in the Panthéon.