Montparnasse Cemetery is the second largest cemetery in Paris, after Père Lachaise.
It's a vast green space with a great variety of trees and even a 17th century windmill (without its sails). It's a tranquil place to wander and reflect. And at the same time, it's a fascinating spot because everywhere you look there is something to photograph.
It's the final resting place for many French intellectuals and artists as well as several illustrious foreigners who made France their home.
But what I love most is that, scattered throughout the cemetery, there are so many unusual and creative graves and tombstones! Some of these are memorials to people who were relatively unknown in their lifetimes.
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The Cat by Niki de Saint Phalle
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The Bird by Niki de Saint Phalle
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Marguerite Duras, writer (1914-1996)
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Jean-Paul Sartre, writer, philosopher (1905-1980)
Simone de Beauvoir, writer, philosopher (1908-1986)
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| Serge Gainsbourg, singer, composer (1928-1991) |
The metro tickets left on Serge Gainsbourg's grave are in memory of his song, Le Poinçonneur des Lilas (about a metro ticket puncher).
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| César, sculptor (1921-1998) |
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| Georges Wolinski, cartoonist killed in the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo (1934-2015) |
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| Man Ray, American painter and photographer (1890-1976) |
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| Susan Sontag, American writer (1933-2004) |
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Samuel Beckett, playwright (1906-1989). Someone left a note "Still waiting..." 🙂 |
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Jacques Demy, filmmaker (1931-1990) & Agnes Varda, filmmaker (1928-2019)
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| Jacques Chirac (1932-2019) |
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| Lionel Jospin (1937-2026) |
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| Charles Pigeon, inventor and manufacturer of the Pigeon lamp, a non-exploding gasoline lamp (1838-1915) |
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