I’d heard a lot about Pere Lachaise cemetery whilst on my
Cultural Heritage Course: talk of memory, forgetting, commemoration and how
even famous people get forgotten.
Pere Lachaise is Paris’ largest cemetery within the city of
Paris; it stands at a massive 110 acres with more than a million internments. Accompanied
by my oldest friend walking round Pere Lachaise provided many interesting
conversations.
View from within.
The first person to be buried at Pere Lachaise in 1804 was a five-year old called Adélaïde
Paillard de Villeneuve. Her grave isn’t there anymore; it was a
temporary concession. There are a wide range of famous people commemorated in
the cemetery all labelled with a number on a neat little billboard;
philosophers, artists, singers, politicians. But finding them is less easy
amongst the city of the dead, interspersed by people from all the nations of
the world some famous and some not.
Finding Edith Piaf was particularly difficult because her
inscription was a little note on the side of a family tomb, not a massive
monument. I still found myself wanting to sing ‘Non, je ne regrette rien’. Do you think that was
appropriate?
'Non, de rien de rien'
Oscar Wilde’s tomb is covered in a massive Egyptian motive created
by Epstein. And the world and his wife have kissed the sphinx. With lips bright
red, and the block next to the face is also covered in kisses of every hue. A
big plastic box has been put in place to try to prevent any more amorous
advances from visitors as the bill for cleaning goes to the family. So again,
kissing and leaving your mark, acceptable?
We talked about the Diana memorial and the recent Judd-gate scandal. What constitutes appropriate memorialisation, especially when you can climb
inside the memorial?
Oscar Wilde's sphinx
City of the dead
The style of memorial at Pere Lachaise
might be a little unfamiliar to British audiences. Whilst some tombs were small
and enclosed the majority looked like little houses varying in size from
port-a-loo to full on chapel complete with pews and crypt. You can enter these
memorials, and spend time there. Some memorials seemed to be glorified sheds
and others were well maintained. The famous graves have been numbered, all have
an address with many different street names. Although these are navigation
systems the rows of doors with street signs and neighbouring properties really
felt like streets.
The living and the dead
Streets of Pere Lachaise
Freezing a passing moment in time
We visited a strange quasi temple come
crypt under this golden dome. I was attracted to one little corner by a
flickering light that I assumed was one of those plastic tea lights. I was
wrong. It was a real candle; and watching it flicker and then extinguish was a
poetic moment full of metaphor. The candle was at the heart of a wider
ephemeral memorial surrounding a well varnished plaque and we talked about how
even the hardest rock is still temporary and memorials are for the living.
Guttering flame
