GRAVE THOUGHTS IN FRANCE

PARIS is re-opening for business, and should you be visiting, one essential stop is the Père Lachaise cemetery. This is the final resting place of many people you’d want to pay your respects to, from Proust to Piaf. Other longterm residents include Oscar Wilde, Balzac and Molière. A United Irishman, Peter Lawless, also takes his eternal rest there, as does rock singer Jim Morrison. Cher has bought a plot, right next door to Frederic Chopin — the word hubris springs to mind.

Oscar’s headstone has always posed problems. So many people kissed the statue that lipstick corroded the stone, so protective railings were erected. He then had to suffer further indignities. The original angel which Jacob Epstein carved for the headstone had its male appendage removed only days after being erected.

Replaced, the member was removed again a few weeks later. Oscar’s famous aphorism springs to mind, ‘To lose one parent can be regarded as a misfortune. But to lose two can be regarded as little short of carelessness...’ You can make your own substitution for ‘parent’ in whichever way pleases you.