40 Must-See Gravesites of Famous People in Paris
Paris is a city with a grand history and a rich cultural life. It has nourished and attracted well-known people for centuries. Notable politicians and royalty, musicians and artists, models and designers, engineers and scientists, trailblazers and revolutionaries have all called Paris home—and call it their final resting place.
There are 14 cemeteries in the French capital where everyday people and celebrities have been laid to rest. A few—Père Lachaise, Montmartre, and Montparnasse Cemeteries—are especially notable as the burial places of famous people. If you’re planning to visit Paris, these are some of its most famous gravesites.
Victor Noir
French journalist Victor Noir gained fame after death. Widely considered a revolutionary hero, Noir’s remains were moved to Père Lachaise Cemetery 20 years after his death. For unknown reasons, the full-body sculpture of Noir that marks his grave has a bulge under its belt. Touching the bulge is believed to ensure fertility.
Gaël Chardon, Wikimedia Commons
Oscar Wilde
Born in Ireland, Oscar Wilde is an author and playwright, best known for works such as The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest. In 1895, Wilde was sentenced to two years of hard labour at Reading Gaol in Berkshire, England, after being found guilty of gross indecency.
After his release, he moved to France, where he died in 1900. His remains are interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Marie Curie
Marie Curie was a Polish-born physicist and chemist who won two Nobel Prizes for her scientific achievements. Sadly, her work likely contributed to her death at the age of 66, since she was frequently exposed to radiation and she was such a pioneer that no one know about its harmful effects.
She and her French husband, Pierre Curie, are interred at the Panthéon.
Colette
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette is perhaps the only female author in the world who is known mononymously—as Colette. She wrote about the everyday lives of women with beautifully sensual language. She died at the age of 81 and is interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Samuel Beckett
Irish by birth, Samuel Beckett settled permanently in France in 1938. He was a prolific writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known work is Waiting for Godot. He passed in 1989 and is interred at Montparnasse Cemetery.
Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons
Man Ray
Man Ray—born Emmanuel Radnitzky—was an American visual artist. He created iconic paintings and sculptures but is best known for his surreal photography work. He spent much of his adult life in Paris until his passing in 1976. He is interred at Montparnasse Cemetery.
American Masters Pictures,Man Ray- Prophet of the Avant-Garde (1997)
Serge Gainsbourg
The multi-talented Serge Gainsbourg was known for his controversial and provocative works. His song “Je t'aime... moi non plus” was banned in several countries because of its heavy sexual overtones. Gainsbourg was born in Paris, and left the world there as well. He is interred in Montparnasse Cemetery.
Édith Piaf
Born in Paris in 1915, Édith Piaf is regarded as France’s greatest popular singer. She is best known for "La vie en rose" and "Hymne à l'amour". Although she passed at her villa on the French Riveria, she is buried in Paris at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Légende, La Vie en Rose (2007)
Camille Pissarro
Born in the Danish West Indies (now in the US Virgin Islands), Camille Pissarro was a prolific artist who played an important role in the Impressionist movement. After he moved to Paris, he became a friend and mentor to artists such as Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. He is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Simone Signoret
French actress Simone Signoret won numerous awards including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, a César Award, and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. In 1951, she married French actor and singer Yves Montand. They are buried alongside each other in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte was the Emperor of France and one of history’s greatest military leaders. He was exiled to St. Helena after France was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. He died in St. Helena in 1821. His remains were returned to France 1840, where they were interred in a sarcophagus resting under the dome of Les Invalides.
midjourney, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison was an American singer-songwriter and poet, best known as the lead singer of The Doors. He parted ways with the band in 1971 and moved to Paris. He unexpectedly died there just a few months later, at the age of 27. He is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Elektra Records, Wikimedia Commons
Victor Hugo
Beloved as a French author and statesman, Victor Hugo penned classics such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables. He died in Paris in 1885, when he was 83 years old. He is interred at the Panthéon in the same crypt as Alexandre Dumas and Émile Zola.
Frédéric Chopin
Famed Polish composer Frédéric Chopin was a child prodigy. When he moved to Paris in 1830, at the age of 20, he was already a successful composer. He suffered from poor health for most of his life and died when he was only 39. He is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Edgar Degas
Renowned French artist Edgar Degas is considered one of the founders of the Impressionist movement. Especially well known for his pastel drawings and oil paintings, he died in Paris in 1917. He is interred in his family’s tomb at the Montmartre Cemetery.
Gustave Eiffel
The famed French engineer who gave his name to the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel died in Paris in 1923 after a long and illustrious career. He was interred in the family tomb at Levallois-Perret Cemetery.
Simone de Beauvoir
A trailblazer for feminism, Simone de Beauvoir was a French writer, philosopher, social theorist, and feminine activist, famously known for her controversial book The Second Sex. She and Jean-Paul Sartre were in a relationship for more than 50 years and they are buried side-by-side at Montparnasse Cemetery.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre, a highly influential 20th-century French intellectual, met Simone de Beauvoir when they were both philosophy students. They had a life-long open relationship but never married. They are buried beside each other at Montparnasse Cemetary.
Liu Dong'ao, Wikimedia Commons
Alexandre Dumas
French author and playwright Alexandre Dumas is renowned for writing The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. On his death in 1870, he was buried in the village where he was born, Villers-Cotterêts.
However, in honor of the bicentenary of his birth, his ashes were moved to the Panthéon, and he was re-interred in the same crypt as Victor Hugo and Émile Zola.
Louis Braille
French educator Louis Braille is celebrated for inventing the tactile system of reading and writing that is still used by people with visual impairments. He died in 1852 when he was only 43 years old. He is interred at the Panthéon.
Mariaelizabeth124, Wikimedia Commons
Sarah Bernhardt
Internationally renowned, French actress Sarah Bernhardt remains an icon of the theater. She also starred in some silent films and was posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She died in Paris in 1923 and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Marcel Proust
Born in Paris, Marcel Proust is considered one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. For the last three years of his life, ill health kept him confined to his bedroom. where he slept during the day and struggled to complete his monumental seven-volume novel at night.
He died in 1922, and his tomb is located at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Otto Wegener, Wikimedia Commons
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was born in America but lived in Paris for most of her adult life. She was an author and art collector who hosted a Paris salon for some of the greatest artists and writers of the 20th century, including Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
She is interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Honoré de Balzac
Considered by many to be the greatest novelist of all time, Honoré de Balzac is noted for his complex characters and pioneering use of realism in his work. At the age of 50, he married for the first time, to his long-time love, but he died five months later. He is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Louis-Auguste Bisson, Wikimedia Commons
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin began his career as an actor, under the stage name of Molière. His work as a poet and playwright has had such a tremendous impact that the French language is often referred to as "the language of Molière." In 1673, he collapsed during a stage performance. He insisted on completing his performance but died later that night.
His remains were moved from their original resting place to Père Lachaise Cemetery in 1817.
Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac was a prominent French politician who served in several powerful roles including Prime Minister of France, President of France, and Mayor of Paris. Chirac was born and died in Paris. He is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery.
Ettore Bugatti
Although Ettore Bugatti was born in Italy, he established his legendary automobile company in the Alsace region of France. His vehicles quickly became renowned for their speed, luxury, and technological advancement.
He was initially buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery and his grave marker is still there. However, his remains were later moved to a quieter cemetery in northeastern France.
Abélard and Héloïse
Peter Abelard and Héloïse d'Argenteuil are one of history’s greatest couples, known for their tragic love affair. The 12th-century affair was documented in The Letters of Abelard and Heloise.
Forced to live apart after their secret marriage, they were reunited in death. Their remains were reinterred together a number of times, with their final resting place being Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Georges Seurat
Georges Seurat is a French artist known for developing pointillism, the technique of placing small dots of paint together to create a larger image. His A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which measures 207.5 × 308.1 centimeters (81 3/4 × 121 1/4 inches), took him two years to complete.
He died young, at just 31 years of age. He is interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan was an acclaimed dancer and choreographer. American by birth, she was residing in France at the time of her death. Shockingly, her long flowing scarf became entangled in the open-spoked wheels and rear axle of the car she was travelling in and she died instantly. She is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Baker's Art Gallery, Wikimedia Commons
Ted Lapidus
After apprenticing with Dior, Ted Lapidus started his own fashion label. He rose to fame as a favorite of fashion-conscious celebrities during the 1960s and designed the white linen suit that John Lennon wore on the cover of Abbey Road. He was born in Paris, and although he died in Cannes, he is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Pierre-Yves Beaudouin / Wikimedia Commons
Alice B. Toklas
Immortalized in Gertrude Stein’s memoir The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Toklas was an American writer. Her best-known work is The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, which became iconic in the 1960s for its recipe for hash fudge. Toklas and Stein were a couple for almost 40 years. They are buried side-by-side in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Georges Bizet
Born in Paris, Georges Bizet was a 19th-century French composer most famous for scoring Carmen. Unfortunately, he suffered from ill health for most of his life. He died at age 36, before Carmen became successful. His tomb is located in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Étienne Carjat, Wikimedia Commons
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
Born in Paris in 1732, Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais is best described as a Renaissance man or polymath. When he died at age 67, he had been a watchmaker, inventor, playwright, satirist, publisher, musician, horticulturist, diplomat, spy, arms dealer, financier, and revolutionary (both French and American).
He wrote two plays: The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville. Both were turned into operas and remain popular today. Beaumarchais is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Yves Montand
Born Ivo Livi in Italy, Yves Montand accompanied his family to France in 1923, when he was just a toddler. He began his entertainment career as a music hall singer, where he was discovered by Édith Piaf and became part of her act.
As an actor, he performed in American and French films. He married French actress Simone Signoret in 1951. He subsequently had an affair with Marilyn Monroe, but his marriage survived the infidelity. He is buried beside Signoret in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Étienne Robertson
Étienne-Gaspard Robert was a Belgian physicist who used his scientific knowledge of light to develop a magic and illusions stage show around the turn of the 19th century. Known by his stage name Étienne Robertson, he travelled to world with his show. He died in Paris in 1837 and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Steve Soper, Wikimedia Commons
DJ Mehdi
Mehdi Favéris-Essadi was a French hip hop and house music producer and DJ who was better known by his stage name, DJ Mehdi. He was only 34 years old when he tragically died after the skylight of his home collapsed during a birthday celebration. He is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Daniel Boczarski, Getty Images
Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau was an internationally beloved actor and mime artist, who was known as “Bip the Clown." Off stage, Marceau was a hero. He was a member of the French Resistance during WWII who helped to save numerous children from being deported to concentration camps.
He died at the age of 84 and is interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
press photo, Wikimedia Commons
Jane Avril
Jeanne Louise Beaudon took on the stage name of Jane Avril as a can-can dancer who has been immortalized in iconic paintings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. She was portrayed in Moulin Rouge by Zsa Zsa Gabor (1952) and Nicole Kidman (2001).
She died in 1943 and is interred in the family tomb of her husband (Maurice Biais) in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Gioachino Rossini
Born in Italy, Gioachino Rossini spent much of his career in Paris. He is famous for his operas—39 in number—including The Barber of Seville, Otello, and William Tell. He retired in his thirties, while he still was at the height of popularity. He lived for about another 40 years, dying at the age of 76 in 1868.
Initially interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery, his remains were later returned to Italy. However, the beautiful Rossini family sepulchre remains in the Parisian cemetery.
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