Life at Père-Lachaise Cemetery

Entering Père Lachaise Cemetery, the walk moves along cobblestone paths lined with over 70,000 monuments and more than 5,000 trees, approaching the cemetery as a living greenspace and a record of Paris across centuries. Beyond visiting the gravestones of some of the most influential artists in Parisian history, you pass memorials dedicated to victims of the Nazi concentration camps and reach the Mur des Fédérés, where the Paris Commune met its end, situating each site within its historical moment. The route balances well-known graves with time for flânerie, allowing unexpected encounters with lesser-known epitaphs, sculpted markers and traces of daily life among birds and resident animals. Context connects writers, musicians, and political history while moving at a steady walking pace. The walk concludes with a stop for a drink at a neighborhood address in the 20th arrondissement, extending the conversation sparked along the paths and linking the cemetery to the surrounding district.

Famous gravestones are easy enough to find, yet this experience is driven by the pleasure of flânerie, the art of strolling through a space without a predetermined destination. Whether this means stumbling upon the reserved gravestone of a woman who has yet to die, or confronting the sobering monuments to the victims of each Nazi concentration camp, being guided by Samuél Lopez-Barrantes is what sets this experience apart. A novelist and musician who lives in the neighborhood, and has called the 20th arrondisement home since 2010, his approach to storytelling goes beyond biographical histories, inviting participants to wander through Paris’ most bucolic cemetery before emerging onto the boulevard to raise a glass to Parisian life. Famous markers become points of reflection, prompting consideration of how these sculpted works hold memory and emotion, and how living and dying remain intertwined in the city.

Samuél has lived in Paris since 2010 as a novelist, musician, and literary tour guide. He holds an MA in social theory and an MFA in creative writing. He is a member of an indie rock band and the co-founder of Kingdom Anywhere, an independent anglophone publisher in Paris. He taught creative writing at the Sorbonne for five years before focusing on writing and leading historical walks on modernism, existentialism, and the Nazi Occupation of Paris. His first novel, Slim and the Beast, shares its name with his band, which has played extensively across Europe. His second novel, The Requisitions, is a work of historical metafiction set in Nazi-occupied Poland. Samuél is also fiction editor at SOUVENIR Magazine, an anglophone arts and literature magazine based in Paris.

A notebook for curious note-takers. Umbrella or rain jacket during the rainy season.