He obtained from his friend, now Viceroy of Egypt, the right to cut through the isthmus of Suez, opened in 1869 against every technical forecast. The Panama project then ruined tens of thousands of small investors. The longest inscription in his vault is that of Françoise Coitantiec, the family's servant.
The story
Ferdinand de Lesseps was born at Versailles on 19 November 1805. A diplomat in Egypt, he struck up a friendship there with a young man named Said; when Said became viceroy, in 1854, he granted him the concession for the Suez Canal.
The cutting was done against England, which saw in it a threat to its road to India, and against every technical forecast. The canal opened in 1869; Lesseps received the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, entered the Academy of Sciences in 1873 and the Académie française in 1884.
He then launched the Panama Canal by the same method: a company, shareholders, a public subscription. Yellow fever, the lie of the land and sheer inexperience swallowed the works.
The Panama scandal ruined tens of thousands of small savers. Lesseps was sentenced for the losses inflicted on the shareholders; the sentence was never served, his condition no longer allowing it.
He died at La Chênaie on 7 December 1894 and lies in Division 6, on the chemin de Lesseps that carries his name — one of the few paths in the cemetery named after one of its own residents.
The grave
A plain family grave, on the path that bears his name, whose fullest inscription is not that of the builder of Suez. Beneath “Famille de Lesseps”, one reads: “Françoise Coitantiec, born in Rennes, died in Paris on 8 July 1868, aged 58, was placed in the family vault of the masters she faithfully served for thirty years.” Three lines for a servant, where the Suez Canal has none. It is one of the rare epitaphs in the cemetery to make room for a domestic in a masters' vault.
On site, do not miss
The servant's inscription, Françoise Coitantiec — thirty years of service engraved at greater length than two canals.
Visitors' questions
Where is Ferdinand de Lesseps's grave?
In Division 6, chemin de Lesseps, first row — the path bears his name, in the lower, older part of the cemetery. It is a plain family grave, with no monument to match the scale of his work.
Patrice ChéreauWho is Françoise Coitantiec?
The family's servant, who died in 1868: her inscription is the longest in the vault. It reads that she “a été placée dans le caveau de famille de ses maîtres qu'elle a fidèlement servis pendant trente ans” — was laid in the family vault of the masters she faithfully served for thirty years.
Auguste ComteHow did he win the Suez Canal?
Through a childhood friendship: as a diplomat in Egypt, he had befriended a young man named Said, who went on to become Viceroy. Said granted him the concession in 1854, and the canal was opened in 1869 in the face of British opposition.
Vivant DenonWhat was the Panama scandal?
The failure of the canal he had launched after Suez: yellow fever and the terrain defeated the works, and the bankruptcy ruined tens of thousands of small investors. Convicted over the losses inflicted on shareholders, he never served his sentence.
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