{"id":40550,"date":"2025-11-04T12:13:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T12:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/paris-launches-lottery-for-burial-plots-among-morrison-wilde-and-piaf\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T12:13:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T12:13:21","slug":"paris-launches-lottery-for-burial-plots-among-morrison-wilde-and-piaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/paris-launches-lottery-for-burial-plots-among-morrison-wilde-and-piaf\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris launches lottery for burial plots among Morrison, Wilde and Piaf"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

P\u00e8re Lachaise, which has become popular with tourists, is the resting place of icons including singer Edith Piaf<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Parisians are being offered the chance to win a burial spot among some of history’s most famous artists, including the Doors’ Jim Morrison, author Oscar Wilde and legendary French singer Edith Piaf.<\/p>\n

The city of Paris has launched a lottery to restore funerary monuments within the overcrowded cemeteries of P\u00e8re-Lachaise, Montparnasse and Montmartre.<\/p>\n

Ten gravestones in need of repair at each cemetery are being offered for \u20ac4,000 (\u00a33,500) each, on the condition that purchasers restore them and acquire a burial plot beside them.<\/p>\n

The scheme “presents a compromise” between respecting the dead and giving residents a chance to be buried within the city, the Paris council said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There are very few burial plots currently available at cemeteries within the city limits, with cemeteries mostly full since the start of the 20th Century, the council added<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maintenance of gravestones and monuments in Parisian cemeteries are the responsibility of families – not the city. Therefore some graves can become abandoned and decrepit over time. But removing derelict monuments can prove difficult because the cemeteries are classified as protected heritage sites. <\/p>\n

The city hopes this new programme, which was unanimously approved by the council in April, will help to restore monuments within the famous burial grounds.<\/p>\n

The cemeteries have also become popular tourist destinations in part due to those who rest there. <\/p>\n

As well as Morrison, Piaf and Wilde, French novelist Marcel Proust and Polish composer Frederic Chopin are buried at P\u00e8re Lachaise.<\/p>\n

Writers Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Beckett and singer Serge Gainsbourg were laid to rest at Montparnasse, while actress Jane Birkin’s ashes were interned there.<\/p>\n

Painter Edgar Degas, writer Emile Zola and French New Wave director Francois Truffaut are buried at Montmartre.<\/p>\n

There is no suggestion that any of these monuments are up for grabs under the scheme. <\/p>\n

The 30 available gravestones, many now without distinguishable inscriptions, date back to the 19th Century.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The grave of the Doors frontman Jim Morrison, who died in Paris in 1971<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Applications are only open to people who currently live in Paris. The council said it decided to run the scheme as a lottery after receiving so many expressions of interest. The draw will be held in January.<\/p>\n

But a spot in one of the historic cemeteries is likely to come at a hefty cost for the winners.<\/p>\n

Under the conditions, they must restore the monument they buy within six months, with the new design “faithful to the original”.<\/p>\n

They must also make arrangements to acquire a burial plot nearby, also within a certain timeframe. If either condition is not met, the sale will be cancelled and buyers will lose their money.<\/p>\n

Burial plots are leased for a fixed term, or in perpetuity. Description sheets for the available monuments suggest a burial plot will set buyers back \u20ac976 for a 10-year lease, \u20ac3,354 for 30 years or \u20ac5,260 for 50 years.<\/p>\n

If a lease expires with no renewal, the plot can be resold and reused.<\/p>\n

For perpetuity, the cost is \u20ac17,668.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Getty Images P\u00e8re Lachaise, which has become popular with tourists, is the resting place of icons including singer Edith Piaf Parisians are being offered the chance to win a burial spot among some of history’s most famous artists, including the Doors’ Jim Morrison, author Oscar Wilde and legendary French singer Edith Piaf. The city of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40552,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40550\/revisions\/40552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}