Montmartre Cemetery may well be the best kept secret in Paris. We already know it’s full of beautiful cats, but let’s focus on the graves.
Sure, Montmartre Cemetery may not have the celebrity graves like Pere LaChaise (Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison…). But it certainly has its fair share of amazing graves.
I have been there an awful lot in recent days (with the Paris lockdown, it’s within my 1km exercise radius). And I’ve taken a lot of pictures.
So, here are the 25 best graves I’ve found. I’ve put the name and story when I know it, but as for the locations, you’ll have to find them yourselves. Good luck.
A mosaic grave… 
Alexandre Dumas fils (an author, son of the Alexandre Dumas you probably know!) 
Dumas again 
Painter Edgar Degas 
An intriguing grave 
Writer Emile Zola 
Inventor of the saxophone! 
Composer Berlioz 
Ballet dancer Nijinsky 
Famed singer Dalida 
Sinet from Charlie Hedbo 
Singer France Gall and family 
Composer Offenbach
In case you missed it, here’s my podcast episode on this cemetery, brand new this week, featuring an interview with one of the cemetery’s colourful characters.
PS: As I mentioned, the cemetery is also home to 50 stray cats. Here are a bunch more pictures of them.
You want more from cemeteries in Paris? Here’s my take on Pere Lachaise and the best graves to find there.
Missing the tomb of La Goulue – the cancan dancer that figures in Toulouse Lautrec’s paintings. Have you found it yet?
Yes I have actually! But it’s not such a beautiful grave I must say
I loved visiting the cemetery recently but the smell of cat shit was everywhere. OK, perhaps not everywhere, but it was often smelled. I like cats, but….
I have a relative buried in the Momartmarte cemetery. The composer Charles Valentine Alkan.