- Pere Lachaise history nugget: Some magick-making folks make pilgrimages to the grave of spiritualist Allan Kardec in section forty four. Pere Lachaise grave to note: Italian-born painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) rests in Pere Lachaise.
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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 help you 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.
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.
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 got the rundown on navigating the cemetery's mostly named 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 Lachaise Hours
Allot plenty of time to wander Pere Lachaise. Arrive early a.m. to avoid crowds. Don't try to climb the walls at night, and remember that activity at Morrison's grave may be videotaped by park security. Don't desecrate other tombs with directions to Morrison's grave.
< Monday-Friday: 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Saturday: 8:30 a.m. summer, 8:00 a.m. winter - 6:00 p.m.
Sunday: 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
