James Morrison was an American singer songwriter and the lead vocalist of the rock and roll band known as The Doors.
Founded in California in 1965 by Morrison and Ray Manzarek the group went on to be a huge success in the mid 60's and early seventies, until Morrisons death in 1972. Some of the groups most famous songs include: Riders on the Storm, The End, People are Strange, Light my Fire and Break on Through, among others.
Below is the song People are Strange for your listening pleasure.
With his unique and recognizable voice, wild personality and erratic performance style, Morrison is considered by many critics to be one of the most influential and iconic Rockstar's of all time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
At the age of 27, Morrison was found dead in the bathtub of his apartment in the city of Paris France. The unexpected death was listed as due to heart failure, though no autopsy was ever performed as it was not required by law in Paris at that time. The actual cause of Morrisons death remains a mystery to this day but many people believe that it was due to an accidental heroine overdose.
He was buried at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, the most famous burial grounds in the city, if not the country.
Myself and two friends of mine visited Pere Lachaise and went to the famous grave site a few months back. This post is about that experience.
Pere Lachaise Cemetery: Paris France
The Pere Lachaise Cemetery is located in the 20th arrondissement of the city of Paris about an hour walk from the famous Notre Dame cathedral. The site opened in 1804 and gets its name from Francois d'Aix de La Chaise the personal confessor to king Louis XIV.
The cemetery is quite large at approximately 110 acres in size and contains around 70 000 burial plots. The site receives more than 3.5 million visitors per year, which makes it the largest and most visited necropolis in France and possibly even the world - likely within the top 10 for sure.
One thing that is very surprising to me given its age and prestige, is that the cemetery is still accepting new burials. However, due to overcrowding and very limited space, its not surprising that there is a long wait list and several strict requirements to be buried in there.
One way that the site deals with overcrowding is by burying multiple family members in the same tomb or grave. For instance, its not uncommon for gravesites to be opened up after one family members has decomposed and to install another coffin in the same location. Some tombs within the cemetery actually contain dozens of bodies.
The cemetery is quite beautiful though. It contains a unique combination of mausoleums, monuments and gravestones, all of which are set up in winding rows along a series of curved cobblestone streets and paved walkways. I noticed that the grounds were extremely clean and well kept as well.
A large plaque located at one of the entrances had a list of famous sites within the cemetery to help direct individuals to where they need to go. There are also more than a few street signs installed throughout the grounds to helps guide the way.
That being said. it still wasn't easy for us to find the grave site that we were looking for. After wandering around for a while reading countless names on all of the grave markers we decided to turn to google maps which happened to list the exact location where Jim Morrison was buried. Google knows everything.
Jim Morrisons Grave
Given his more modern day relevance and fame, it wasn't surprising to see that Jim Morrisons grave is one of the most visited sites in the entire cemetery. Of all the burial plots that we passed during our walk, his had by far the most flowers, candles and tributes laid in and around his marker. The site has become a sort of shrine to the famous artist.
It was also the only gravesite in the cemetery that was blocked off to the public, at least in part. Access to the gravestone was barred by sections of steel construction grating that completely surrounded the encompassing area. You can see some of the grates in the background of the photo below.
Unfortunately, the grating really detracts from the beauty of the site and I'm surprised that they haven't installed something more permanent and a little nicer, like a wrought iron fence. I suppose some sort of protection is necessary though to stop people from stealing items or doing something stupid like chipping the gravestone to collect a small piece of the famous rock. There is always someone who will do something stupid like that.
One of the guys I was with jumped the fence to pay his own tribute to the famous Rockstar. He set down a small flask of whiskey that he had bought specifically for the occasion. Personally, I thought that that was fine. He was respectful and didn't do any damage to the location for his own gain. It was also much better than trying to toss the glass bottle over the fence, which would have definitely broken on the stone if it had not broken the glass of one of the candles or frame of one of the photographs.
We played one of Morrisons songs at the site before moving on to see a few other famous grave markers. Oscar Wilde, the Irish poet and playwright is also buried in the cemetery as is Frederic Chopin, the famous Polish composer and pianist. Those three graves were the busiest locations that we had seen that day.
Jean Joseph Carries was a French sculptor and miniaturist and he is also buried in the cemetery. I'm not personally familiar with any of his work but I thought that his grave was one of the most interesting to see that day.
Well, that's it for our trip to the Pere Lachaise cemetery and since this is the end of my post...... (pun pun pun pun pun) I will leave you with one last song to fit the occasion. This is The End by Jim Morrison and The Doors.
