If you're ever in the Montparnasse district, don't miss the large and beautiful Cimetière du Montparnasse. The second largest cemetery in Paris, it was built in 1824, at the same time as other Parisian cemeteries (Cimetière de Passy, Cimetière de Montmartre and Cimetière du Père-Lachaise).
Treed by some 1,200 trees, a stroll through the cemetery is a free pleasure. You can stroll between the tombs of unknown and illustrious figures from history, art, cinema, literature, painting... If you'd like to take a detailed tour of the cemetery, a free map is available at the entrance, with the locations of famous graves marked on it.
Among the personalities who have their graves here are writers (Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Charles Baudelaire, Robert Desnos, Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Marguerite Duras, Joseph Kessel, Guy de Maupassant, Pierre Louÿs, Vercors, Henri Troyat), actors (Mireille Darc, Bruno Cremer, Serge Reggiani, Jean Seberg, Philippe Noiret, Jean Poiret, Delphine Seyrig, Jean Carmet) and filmmakers (Jacques Demy, Éric Rohmer, Maurice Pialat, Alain Resnais, Gérard Oury, Claude Sautet, Jacques Becker).
But also composers (Camille Saint-Saëns), photographers (Gyula Brassaï, Man Ray), painters (Eugène Carrière), historical figures (Alfred Dreyfus) and politicians (Simone Veil, Raymond Barre).
Don't forget to visit Serge Gainsbourg's grave, on which fans from all over the world continue to lay flowers, metro tickets and even cabbages every day!
For the record, the Cimetière du Montparnasse was built on the site of three farms, and it's still possible to see these remnants of the past, as one of the towers of one of the flour mills still stands in the cemetery, and has even been classified as a historic monument.
It's a wonderful walk.
Location
Montparnasse Cemetery
3, boulevard Edgar Quinet
75014 Paris 14
Prices
Free
Official website
www.paris.fr
