Frequently asked questions

No. Entry is free, every day, for everyone. Père Lachaise is a municipal cemetery run by the City of Paris, not a paid attraction. There is no ticket office, no entry fee and no reservation system.

A guided tour, an audio guide or an app, or a bundled city pass that lists the cemetery as an included attraction. All of those are real products. None of them is admission, and none of them is required to walk in.

Group walking tours in Paris typically run between about €25 and €50 per person for two to three hours. Private walks are usually priced per group rather than per head. Whatever you pay, none of it is admission.

No. The crematorium and columbarium in division 87 are part of the same free public site. They are working facilities, so access can be restricted around ceremonies.

It opens at 08:00 Monday to Friday, 08:30 on Saturdays and 09:00 on Sundays and public holidays. It closes at 18:00 from 16 March to 5 November and at 17:30 from 6 November to 15 March.

Yes, every day of the year, but it opens an hour later than on weekdays — 09:00 rather than 08:00. Closing time is unchanged.

Clearing begins fifteen minutes before the posted closing time and nobody is admitted after that. Allow at least two hours before closing to see anything properly, and three if you are walking the full route.

It opens every day of the year. Individual gates close for works, and the whole site can be closed at short notice in high winds because the trees are old and large. Check the City of Paris page on a stormy day.

The Porte Gambetta at 55–57 rue des Rondeaux if you want to walk downhill, which is the sensible choice for anyone visiting the upper divisions. The main gate at 28 ter boulevard de Ménilmontant if you are only visiting the lower divisions.

Gambetta, on lines 3 and 3bis, for the top gate and a downhill walk. Philippe Auguste on line 2 is closest to the main gate at the bottom. Père Lachaise, on lines 2 and 3, is two minutes from the main gate and the busiest exit.

Partly. Three of the five gates are step-free and the surfaced main avenues can be used, but the site climbs about thirty metres and most individual graves sit off the avenues on cobbles or packed earth. The Porte des Amandiers and the Porte de la Réunion both have steps.

One hour covers the lower divisions and four or five famous graves. Two to three hours gives you the shape of the whole cemetery. Half a day lets you wander, which is the best way to see it.

No. There is no café, no shop and no reliable water point inside, and public toilets only near the main entrance. Bring water. Eating is not permitted anywhere in the cemetery.

Yes, free, at the conservation office at 16 rue du Repos on weekdays, and there are large plan boards at the main gates. A paper plan is better than a phone here: the tree cover degrades GPS badly and signal is patchy in the upper divisions.

By division number. The cemetery is signed by numbered division and there are no signposts to individual graves. Look the number up before you arrive and follow the division markers on the posts at each corner.

Jim Morrison's, in division 6, by a wide margin. Chopin's grave in division 11 receives the most flowers and Oscar Wilde's in division 89 receives the most kisses, now on the glass barrier rather than on the stone.

Often. Send the name and any dates when you enquire and we will check with the cemetery's conservation office before your visit. Records are incomplete for some periods, and concessions that expired have in many cases been recovered and reused, so we cannot promise.

Because they are chronological rather than geographical. Divisions 1 to 26 are the original 1804 cemetery near the main gate; the higher numbers are later extensions running outward and uphill. Low numbers are old and low; high numbers are newer and higher.

Twenty at most. Small enough that everyone can hear without straining and that stopping to ask a question does not hold up a crowd.

We walk. Père Lachaise in the rain is, if anything, better. We only cancel when the City of Paris closes the cemetery for high winds, and in that case you are refunded in full or moved to another date, whichever you prefer.

They suit attentive children of about ten and up. Two hours of walking and listening in a place where they cannot run around is a long afternoon for anyone younger. A private walk can be shortened and re-pitched for a family.

Currently we guide in English. Ask when you enquire — if we can cover another language for your date we will say so, and if we cannot we will say that instead.

Yes. Every walk is led by a holder of the French carte professionnelle de guide-conférencier, the state qualification that permits professional guiding in France.

Yes. Around ten thousand funeral ceremonies take place here every year. If you walk into one, stop talking, step off the path and wait, and do not photograph it. That is the one rule that really matters.

Yes, for your own use. A tripod, a drone or any commercial shoot needs permission from the cemetery administration. Do not photograph funerals or mourners.

Flowers on a grave you are visiting, yes. Objects on a grave that is not yours, no — staff have to remove them and some of them damage the stone. Food is never appropriate; it attracts vermin.

Because the damage is cumulative and permanent. Lipstick ate into the porous limestone of Oscar Wilde's tomb until a glass wall had to be built around it, and rubbed bronze loses its patina for good.