Eighteen Tours in One Weekend in May

One weekend in May, Père-Lachaise is transformed. Groups of 10 to 20 people follow volunteer guides down the alleys, stopping at graves that regular visitors never notice, listening to anecdotes about figures they have never heard of. This is the Printemps des cimetières — the only national event devoted solely to funerary heritage and the discovery of cemeteries. Founded in 2016 by the Funerary Heritage Committee of Patrimoine Aurhalpin, in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the event has since grown into a nationwide occasion. In 2024, more than 70 départements took part and more than 370 events were scheduled across France.

The City of Paris joined the Printemps des cimetières in 2018 — two years after the event was created. The APPL, the Friends and Enthusiasts of Père-Lachaise, answered the call at once and has organised themed tours ever since, with subjects changing every year. In 2018 the themes were Egyptology, the women of Père-Lachaise, film heroes and the metro stations named after figures buried in the cemetery. In 2019, funerary symbolism. In 2022, freemasonry. In 2023, animals depicted on monuments, twentieth-century sculpture, pioneering women. In 2024, violent deaths and the illustrious unknown. The most popular tours in a given year are scheduled again the next.

During the 2024 Printemps des cimetières, a guided tour titled “Violent Deaths” took visitors around the graves of figures who died in violent or spectacular circumstances. It sold out within twenty-four hours.

In 2024, Père-Lachaise alone offered 18 different tours and events in a single weekend. The programme for all of Paris's cemeteries ran to 24 pages. The City of Paris offered tours devoted to the trades of the cemetery — gardeners, keepers, gravediggers — letting the public discover the work of the 80 staff who keep Père-Lachaise running day to day. Other associations took part: the Souvenir Français, the Foundation for the Memory of Deportation. Actors, dancers and singers ran volunteer activities for children and adults alike. Exhibitions on the cemetery's wildlife and flora rounded out the programme.

The success of the Printemps des cimetières at Père-Lachaise rests on a paradox: three and a half million people visit the cemetery every year, yet most know no more than five or six graves. The Printemps des cimetières opens up entire Divisions that regular visitors never walk through — the Charonne plateau, the upper Divisions, the sectors far from the main entrance. Each tour brings forgotten figures, little-known symbols and stories that even cemetery regulars do not know. The event did not take place in 2020, because of Covid. Since it resumed, the number of organisers and visitors has risen steadily — proof that funerary heritage interests a public far wider than taphophiles alone.