If it wasn't the reason, how can it be the intention?

A few other correctives. The great cemeteries of 
Paris were the result of urbanization--as the 
population density increased the churchyards 
became more valuable, so the bodies were 
transferred. There was also concern about 
sanitation (there are I think only two of the 
older cemeteries that survive--the churchyard in 
Menilmontant, and the convent where the victims 
of the Terror were buried). In no sense are they 
national cemeteries--the closest Paris has to 
that are the Pantheon, with a couple of dozen 
notables, like Voltaire, the Invalides, with 
Napoleon and some of his generals, and the 
cathedral of Saint Denis, with most of the kings. 
Pere Lachaise is just a cemetery--the vast 
majority of those buried there were ordinary 
folks. A great many are in fact cremated, 
including Isidora Duncan. She rests, like the 
others, in a wall niche, which seems to be what 
most people do with the ashes of loved ones, except in Hollywood movies.

The cemeteries were also built as parks, like 
Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetery, at a time when 
urban space wasn't being routinely set aside for 
greenery and the royal parks were still royal. It 
wasn't tourists who were expected to stroll 
there, but locals. Last I was there they didn't 
sell tickets. Except on national holidays 
(especially Armistice Day) they're not very 
crowded, except for the vicinity of Jim Morrison. 
Pere Lachaise is unique in the volume of its 
tourist traffic--usually the Montparnasse, which 
I lived a block away from for a few months, is 
deserted except for folks taking a shortcut or a 
neighborhood stroll. Not a tour bus in sight. 
Lots of famous dead, though. Likewise the Montmartre and Passy cemeteries.

After the fall of the 1871 commune a couple of 
thousand communards were lined up against the 
north wall of Pere Lachaise and shot. I don't 
remember if there's a plaque. Another use for open space.

In the year that I lived five blocks from Pere 
Lachaise I went in once, on Armistice Day.

Do you really think that large numbers of people 
come to Paris for the cemeteries? The only place 
that might be true of is the Nile Valley.

Mark

At 05:28 PM 3/31/2007, you wrote:
>Anny, the cynic and once Francophile in me wants to say that early on the
>French Government, it appears, was into marketing - putting or burying fame
>all in one place and then making it into a global destination target!
>Certainly that was not the original reason why much of Frances cultural
>wealth got buried in the same place. But a tourist economy trumps all other
>intentions, I suspect, and so France has discovered another level of
>mortuary meaning.
>(Somebody recently said that if Tourism were a country, it would be the
>third or fourth largest in the world!)
>
>I also suspect there are the families of both famous and/or not who prefer
>cremation - inaccessibility of remains becomes a virtue. Or, if you are
>really interested, read the books or look at the art of the beloved
>deceased.
>
>Yet, to contradict, I love the Vietnam Memorial as a site of grievance - and
>its huge service to the needs of this country to take account the dark facts
>of that way. May the Memorial for the Iraq dead (both Iraqi and 'Coalition
>Forces' }be enshrined in Crawford, Texas - I say. Bush should never left to
>live with himself again. I diverge!
>
>As to where to bury and enshrine poets, it's kind of a startling thought -
>but sweetly curious for the imagination to wonder - if there could be a
>national burial ground in the USA, Canada, Australia or anyone else. Imagine
>- in the USA - Wallace Stevens, Dickinson, Frost, Lowell, Rexroth, Duncan,
>Langston Hughes, etc., etc., all buried in shared grounds. Talk about
>possibilities for creative landscaping!  (And the politics of getting in.
>One hesitates to think of National Endowment for the Arts application to get
>your remains into a 'plot'!
>
>Just off the cuff, a single line from Beverly Dahlen's recent book, A
>Reading 18 - 20:
>
>Mourning becomes etc.
>
>I am not sure precisely why that line rings some bells, hard one. I am sure
>it was written during the overwhelming number of deaths from AIDS as that
>epidemic took off in the eighties.
>
>Stephen V
>http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
>
>
>
>
>
> > I googled Père Lachaise Cemetery because I had the idea of quoting it in a
> > poem, see here for God's sake who is in there besides the ones that Mark
> > mentioned: Doré, the same Abelard, Balzac, 
> Isadora Duncan, Max Ernst, Gérard
> > de Nerval, and I haven't scrolled down the page, yet.
> >
> > 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Burials_at_P%C3%A8re_Lachaise_Cemetery
> >
> >
> >
> > On 3/30/07, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >>
> >> You pass Chopin, Berlioz, Yves Montand and Simone Signoret on the way
> >> from the one to the other. Pretty neat, tho it definitely could use a
> >> cafe. Every decent cemetery should have a cafe.
> >>
> >> Don't tell Starbucks.
> >>
> >> The tombs of the Rothchilds are in the Montparnasse cemetery, near
> >> where I used to live. Their very plain crypts are marked with a larfe
> >> R, reminiscent of the double R of Rolls Royce.
> >>
> >> Check outthis funereal news in the New York Times:
> >> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/us/30ashes.html
> >>
> >> Mark
> >>
> >> At 04:34 PM 3/30/2007, you wrote:
> >>> I guess I would just split myself and gather around both. Never been
> >> there
> >>> even if I was twice in Paris but just for a short stay.
> >>>
> >>> On 3/30/07, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Which in French means "don't gambl;e with tough guys." Always good
> >> advice.
> >>>>
> >>>> Last time I was in Pere Lachaise more folks were gathered arounf
> >>>> Apollinaire than Morrison. Something to cheer about.
> >>>>
> >>>> Mark
> >>>>
> >>>> At 03:33 PM 3/30/2007, you wrote:
> >>>>> Sorry, I meant to add that in Paris, where Jim
> >>>>> Morrison is buried, they have a French saying that
> >>>>> translates roughly as "don't put the cart before The
> >>>>> Doors."
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Candice
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> __________________________________________________________________
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