- Pere Lachaise historical nugget: in the cemetery's eastern corner is a wall called the Mur des Fédérés, against which 147 Communards (supporters of a short-lived Paris socialist government) were shot on a May morning in 1871.
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Looking for photos of
JimMorrison's grave? Check it out:
Jim Morrison's grave and
Jim Morrison's headstone.
The best free thing to do in any city is find a park and watch local life, but between bench-warmings in Paris, visit Pere Lachaise cemetery, one of the
top 5 free things to do in Paris for student travelers. This famous cemetery at the Phillipe Auguste or Pere Lachaise metro stop has maps onsite to helpyouu find graves of some of the notables resting among vast Pere Lachaise's trees and stones, such as Honoré de Balzac, Frédéric Chopin, Jim Morrison of '60's band the Doors, Marcel Proust and Oscar Wilde.
I visited Pere Lachaise on a sunny spring Sunday morning in 2006 with a group of terrific Texas students on an EF Tours educational trip called "Traveling Through History," which is certainly what a walk through Pere Lachaise is. Our group was given the rundown on navigating the cemetery's streets by our EF tour director, and then we were off to roam among the inspiring and usually thought-provoking tombstones dating from the 1600's.
Pere Lachais is named after a Jesuit priest from the era of Louis XIV and has been in the keeping of the city of Paris since 1804. Allot plenty of time to wander Pere Lachaise. See links below if you'd like to visit Pere Lachaise and the City of Light with an EF educational tour, all-inclusive group tours for high school and college students.
