Wandering avenues of the dead in Montmartre
PARIS— Just around the corner, it’s a typical Parisian rush hour with bumper-to-bumper cars honking their way down Boul. de Clichy past garish shop fronts and the blazing red sails of the Moulin Rouge.
But here in the Montmartre cemetery the only sound is the trill of birds as they flit through the shady trees lining the avenues of the dead. It doesn’t get much more serene than this. This is not the cemetery where the Doors’ lead singer, Jim Morrison, is buried; that’s Père Lachaise. But it is the final resting place of several painters, composers, writers and other artists, testament to Montmartre’s Bohemian past.
Some of the cemetery’s most famous residents include composers Hector Berlioz ( Symphonie Fantastique) and Jacques Offenbach ( The Tales of Hoffman). Dancer Rudolf Nijin- sky is here as is Edgar Degas, famous for his paintings of ballet dancers. Also: Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone.
In a neat little bit of literary history, you can find the grave of Alexandre Dumas, who wrote The Three Musketeers, as well as the grave of Alphonsine Plessis, the courtesan who was the inspiration for Dumas’ La Dame Aux Camelias. The tragic story laid the foundations for the opera La Traviata, and the movie Camille.
And if you don’t feel like tracking down graves, this is also a perfectly good place to simply wander, investigating memorials that catch your eye, like the full-size statute of a man atop the grave of Jean Bauchet. Not a household name, but he was a manager of the Moulin Rouge, the famous cabaret, just a short walk away.
Walking back to Boul. de Clichy from the cemetery entrance, you will find Corcoran’s Irish Pub. It’s a good place to toast the ghosts of Montmartre.