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Père Lachaise Walks

Père Lachaise map and divisions

The cemetery is signed by division number, not by name. Low numbers are the old ground near the main gate at the bottom of the hill; high numbers are the later extensions up at the Gambetta end.

Schematic plan of Père Lachaise Cemetery showing gates, main avenues and the approximate position of well-known graves by divisionThe cemetery is roughly pentagonal, with the main gate at the lower left on boulevard de Ménilmontant and the Porte Gambetta at the upper right on rue des Rondeaux. The ground rises from the main gate to the Gambetta gate. The oldest divisions, numbered 1 to 26, lie in the lower left near the main gate and include Jim Morrison in division 6, Héloïse and Abélard in division 7, Chopin in division 11, and Molière and La Fontaine in division 25. The middle of the cemetery holds divisions 27 to 60, including Balzac in division 48. The upper right holds the later divisions 61 to 97, including Proust in 85, the crematorium in 87, Oscar Wilde in 89, Victor Noir in 92, Gertrude Stein in 94, and Édith Piaf with the deportation memorials in 97. The Mur des Fédérés is in division 76 at the eastern edge. Positions on this diagram are approximate.boulevard de Ménilmontantrue du Reposrue des Rondeauxrue de la RéunionDivisions 1–261804, the original groundDivisions 27–601820s–1850sDivisions 61–97the eastern extensionsPorte principalePorte du ReposPorte des AmandiersPorte GambettaPorte de la Réunion6711254876858789929497the ground rises this way
A schematic orientation diagram, not a survey — positions are approximate and the shape is simplified. For the official plan, and for the current state of any gate, see the City of Paris page for the cemetery. Free paper plans are available at the conservation office at 16 rue du Repos.
  • 6Jim Morrison
  • 7Héloïse and Abélard
  • 11Chopin
  • 25Molière, La Fontaine
  • 48Balzac
  • 76Mur des Fédérés
  • 85Proust
  • 87Crematorium
  • 89Oscar Wilde
  • 92Victor Noir
  • 94Gertrude Stein
  • 97Édith Piaf, the memorials

Why the division numbers seem random

Because they are chronological, not geographical. Père-Lachaise did not open at its present size: it opened in 1804 on a much smaller plot and was extended five times over the following sixty years, most substantially in 1824, 1829, 1846 and 1850. Each extension was surveyed and numbered as it was added.

So divisions 1 to 26 are the original 1804 cemetery, clustered around the main gate at the bottom of the hill. The forties and fifties climb the slope behind them. The eighties and nineties are the last eastern extensions, up at the Gambetta end. The numbers run outward from the original core in rough rings, which is why 89 is nowhere near 88 on the ground and why walking from 6 to 7 takes a minute while walking from 48 to 49 takes rather longer.

Once you know that, the plan reads properly: low numbers are old, low and near the boulevard; high numbers are newer, higher and near Gambetta. Almost everything else about navigating this cemetery follows from that one sentence.

The three main routes

The avenue Principale runs from the main gate up towards the Rond-Point Casimir-Perier, where Bartholomé's Monument aux Morts stands. It is the widest, straightest and most surfaced path here, and it is the spine of the lower cemetery.

The avenue Circulaire runs around the inside of the perimeter wall. It is how you get from one side of the cemetery to the other without navigating the interior, and it passes the Mur des Fédérés in division 76 and the deportation memorials in division 97.

The chemin du Dragon and the transverse paths climb between the terraces. These are the ones with the steps, the roots and the cobbles, and they are also where most of the interesting sculpture is.

Getting a paper plan

Free printed plans are available at the conservation office at 16 rue du Repos, inside the Porte du Repos, open on weekdays. They mark the principal graves by division and they are better than anything on a phone.

That is not a nostalgic preference. The tree cover in the upper divisions is dense enough to degrade GPS badly, and mobile signal is patchy at the Gambetta end. A phone here will confidently show you standing forty metres from where you are, which in a place navigated by division boundaries is worse than useless.

There are also large plan boards mounted at each of the main gates. Photograph the one at the gate you come in through, as a backup.

How the cemetery is signed

By division number, on small posts at the corner of each block, and by path name on plates fixed to the walls at junctions. There are no signs to individual graves, with the partial exception of a few of the very heavily visited ones.

This is the single most important practical thing to understand before you come. If you arrive knowing you want to see Piaf but not knowing she is in division 97, you will walk for forty minutes. If you arrive with the number, you will walk for five. Write the numbers down — our index of famous graves lists them all — and do it before you lose signal.

A map is not the same as knowing where you are

Our walk exists because the gap between a plan and the ground is bigger here than almost anywhere. Two hours, from the top gate downwards, with someone who has done it a few hundred times.

See the guided walkRead the full visitor guide